
CIass_J=^j^J 



Book__/fiL^:_7 



/ 

A WORD IN SEASON; 



REV^lEW OF THE POLITICAL LIFE AND OPINIONS 






MARTIN VAN BUREN. 



AnDUESSKP 



TO THE ENTIRE DEMOCRACY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 



"We contnid for a wfU rcculaled democracy."— yo/(/i Marshall. 



OEDICATED TO THE TIPPECANOE CLUBS OF THE UNION, 

BY A HARRISON DEMOCRAT. 

WASHINGTON: ^' 

PUBLISHED BY W. 31. MORRISON. 

1840. 



Mfl 



P R E F A C E. 



In a review of the political life and opinion.s of one who lias attained to the summit of official 
honors in iho gift of his countrymen, it is deemed boih proper in itself, and a duly we owe to 
tlie dignity of the office, at least, to give some general description of the authorities from which 
we have derived the facts stated. Of these authorities, that which is entitled, by courtesy, to 
the first notice, is 

"The Life and Political Opinions of Mautis Van Buiif.s, bj' William M. Holland," 
published at Hartford, Ct., 1835, by Bellcnap & Hamcrsley. This book was written with the 
avowed f bject, in part, "to contribute to the political elevation of Mr. Van Buren." In the 
preface, (page ix,) the writer expresses his " great obligations to the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler 
for the ability and zeal with which he has on several occasions defended the character of his dis- 
tinguished friend;" and tenders his "particular thanks to the Hon. James Vanderpoel, who 
has facilitated the collection of materials for his work," which he professes to sulmiit to the pub- 
lic also as "a contribution to sufiport democratic princi])les." The liife of jMr. Van Buren, thus 
boastfully ushered beiVjie the public, and greatly lie[)raised by the Globe and other party jiresses 
at the time of its aj)pe,irance, must have entillt\! it to be considered authentic and satisfactory to 
the friends of Mr. Van Buren and to himself at the time of its publication. Viut many of the 
facts slated in this book with the expectation of advancing his ambition then, having at length 
commenced to act against him, have given occasion to some of his friends recently to declare it 
to be "a forgery." This attempt, hov\'ever, to discredit their own production, at this late day, 
has entirely fallen to the ground, as a considerable leward offered by the editors of the Madison- 
ian for a "forged copy," has failed to produce one, or any evidence of such "forgery." 

"The Political Mirror," &c., published by .f. P. Peaslee, No. 49, Cedar street, iVew York, 
1835, has also aflorded an ample source of information, such, too, as is not contained in Hol- 
land's inemoir. This is a work of great merit, and bears an internal evidence that traces its 
authorship to one of the most profound statesmen of the present day. It is a magazine <if astound- 
ing facts and astute ('eductions, so extensive in details and admirable in method as to have drawn 
from an eminent Senator the complimentary expression that "it will form the basis of the future 
history of these disjointed times." 

Also, "A Memoir of Martin Van Buren, comprising an account of the intrigues by <vhich he 
sought and acquired the nomination and election to the office of Chief Magistrate, together with 
developments of his political character, by A. Citizkn of Nkw York, piinted l>y B. W . Ro- 
berts, i\ew York, 1828," has afforded us much additional light. 

A large portion of the facts staled are also derived from public documents in the Secretary's 
and Clerk's offices of the two Houses of Congress, as well as from various other authentic 
sources, which are referred to, respectively, when the facts are stated. 

We have arranged the whole review in three periods of lime. 

The FiHST Pkkioi) comtnences with Master Van Buren's apprenticeship to the study of law 
at 14 years of age, and runs to the time of his attaining a seat in the United States Senate in 
1821, giviiig a summary of his political tergiversations, his perfidy, and his intrigues for politi- 
cal atlvaucement during that period. 

The Second Pkiuod runs from ihe time of his taking his seat in the Senate till he attained 
to the Presidential chair, as tb.e nominee and successor of General Jackson, giving the com- 
mencement of his elfiirt.-i, and the history of his success, in transferring the s[ioils system to the 
General Goveriuneiit ; his clandestine devices antl influences to facilitate executive encrouchincnts 
on the other deiiartmcnts of the Government; and the concentration of all power in the Presi- 
descy before liis olection to that office, which he coiilidenily antici))afed and steadily puisued 
wliile he was Senator of the United States, Secretary of State, minister to England, and Vice 
President. 

The TniRii Pi:nio» exhiliits the it.ses and ahuifes he has made of those coxceixtratku pow- 
>:ns, in the short time which has clajised since his election to the Pret^idericy was consummated, 
by certain clandestine artifices that prostrated the elective franchise of twelve millions of freemr n 
at the feet of a military despot in the civic garb, for the benefit of a favorite political adven- 

TUBKR. 

Each of these periods of time are divided into several skctions, according to the diversity of 
the sul>jects they embrace, and they reciprocally run into each other as the elucidation of their 
connecting subjects require; so that theTiiiun pkuiou is for the most part anticipated by the 
recitals and allusions incident to the details of the t-Mtsr and sKcor*n. 

The whole is premi.-5ed wiih an exposition of the principles of true democracy in contradistinc- 
tion from those of an ambitious faction who attempt to cheat and decoy the people to their sup- 
port by assuming that honored and popular name. 

AVasuinuton, September 15, 1840. 



i 



PRELIMINARY, 



^ " We contend for a wpll-reculated Demorracy " 

iJohn MarshaWs speech in t he Virginia Convention on the adoption of Ike Constitution. 

The true Demoa-acy-of Statesmen, Pa/riots, and lovers of the Constilulion-contra^ted with 
the false Democracy of restless, ambitious innovators, Ld enemies ofZ ConstZtion 
■ One who professes to labor in the cause of Democracy might well be expected certainlv ner 

t 1 " iat r.'irr' ^:S';h'"';"""'^ " 'V^'"'^ '^■^^"'•^ '° ^'^^ g.oss perversion ol thl 

ler^l^ in lattt i lunts. I will, therefore, previouslv to enter ng upon toe orouer subiert nf .h;= 

renew, devote this Pn.u.ux.u.v slctiox to a'sta.ement of inv se t n en of e" tm" 

howing hat they are the same with tho.e of the wise.t and puresl'patriots of the beUe"dav"of 

.osh7 r' r'rli "'"^ '\''' disorganising, revohuio'nary sentinu-nts o the mbi ions 

'rDcM^oerT ; 'in h ", ""T''"" "^"-"•'■="-- ^'■^<'--" "'' tl- present .legenera.e .ii^; ' 

.h. 7"y'":'*'^>' '" 'he true American sense, is a well-regulated Governnfent of the PeoDle 

through her representatives and ugents-from dcaos, the i^^.ple, and /.v«/.o o gov n ^ ' 

rhe D,.M0cnATic Ca.sf. is the cause oi Justice in any community, whc her between man 

True Democracy is necessarily based upon JiSTir,:, because it is an intrinsic nrinciole of 
human ngh.s, which should be held in strict observance as the indispens ble ullb of he 4? 

" hori't'.":"r "T"'""^! -", ,r"^"'-^- »»'« p-'buc .ood, whichcouu "t , :tS 

without ,l; and especially, it should be unabated in its supremacy over the amctmmt of l*ws 
rtu * '";r """""' ^^ 7'! - '" "-• udjudicntion and the aZinisiratin^^^ \^^^ 
Mole, 1 .^'"""'^'"'^'^-^ "1'^' •f'^^^'f^ -'"'^'^ '''^« l^"« «l-wn to be identical, it is clear tlnit a 

^itu V r"' ; " T""'"""' ■'" •h^ '•-''-- "P--'"i°'- "•• -^^'ety are as disparaging a d de 
rogatorv, by the indirect operations ol such policy in impoverishing son,e and enriching others 
a» It the property ot the one were violently seized and transferred to the otJier ' 

Ihe cause of Justick, then, strictly so considered, is the true Democratic cause, because it 
" "rC.t -/- «We . ./.;../. and rights of .... And whatever i.iuvii,..., or cLs , o 
fr?, , I r ' \ '"'^•' '^''' P^''"«^''"-V 10 advance his or their interests by wilfully in- 

ncil"i.?Tr'"'T^ 'l' ^""""^ '"'T'"' "^ "^^ community, is a presumptuous ,.o»oj^ in 
principle, ,, the nidiv.dual caj.acity, and, m the case of the combination, is a faction a consvi 
racy, or s dcspat>sm oj the many over the feu: , according to the extent of its numbers, and the 
success of the schemes oJ injustice. 

Having entertained these sentiments for years, upon now reducing them t.. pai.er a reminis- 
cence comes upon my mind, that I have high authority for them, as old as iur revolutionary 
rlS'' n T P"l'-<"f"-'[''^'^^^tors, Tin: Revolutionaht VVhu^s, were considered and 

treated as Democrats, and the lories alone were excluded or exempted from the iionor or the 
odium of the appellation, as it was held on this or the other side of the Atlantic. It does appear 
nowever, that, at a later period, when our present federal Constitution was under discussion in 
me several btates or adoption, there were some symptoms of restricting the term Democracy to 
narrower limits; that is, to the friends of the Constitution, for a time at least, until it became 
ine fundamental law of the land; after which, its veriest enemies may charitably be considered 
as cu:qu,e.,cin^ Democrats. Hut during the discussion of the Constitution, the advocates of its 
adoption, the friends ojtltc Union, called themselves "Democrats," declarin- that "they con- 
tended for a well-regulated Democracy :" while the opponents of its adoption, the enemies of 
tlie Union, ^ni\ advocates of separate State sovereignties, called themselves "Slate Rights Re- 
publicans. How unjustly the former have been since stigmatized as federal consolidationists 
l-y the latter, who have at the same time filched from them their good old name of Democrats 
and appropriate it to themselves, I must for the present leave it to the reader to judge 

I shall give one or two authorities only, to show how universally the friends o'f the Constitu- 
tion, previous to its adoption, were consi.lere.l as the true lovers of Democracy, and how all its 
tormer friends and foes have, since its adoption, been considered to be HE-uxiTEn as one great 
Jfcniocratic Party. " 

The immortal John Marshall, that learned jurist and profound statesman, the late Chief Jus- 
«n ,u I ""«'^. States, when advocating the merits of the Constitution, in debate on its adop- 
tion m the Virginia Convention, said : ' 



"Mr Chairman, I conceive ihal the object of the discussion now before us is, whether democracy or despotism 
be most eligible. I am sure that those wlio framed the svsieni siUiujitled to our investigation, and ilicse who now 
support it, intend the cstablislnnent and security of the former. The supporters of the constitution claim the title 
ol being firm friends of the liberty and the rights of mankind. They say that they consider it as the best means uf 
protecting liberty. We, sir, idolize democracy. Those who oppose it [iho constitution] have bestowed eulogiums 
on monarchy. We prefer this system to any monarchy, because we are convinced that it has a great tendency to 
secure our libeny and promote our happint ss. We admire it. because we think it a well-regulated democracy. U 
is recommended to the good people of thij country— they are, through u.-, to declare whether it be such a plan of 
Government as will establish and secure their freedom. 

" The honorable gentleman (Mr. Henry) has e.\patiuted on the necessity of a due attention to certain maxims— 
to cenain fundamental principles from which a free people ought never to depart. 1 concur with him in the pro- 
priety of the observance of such maxims. Tliey are necessary in any Government, but more essential to a democ- 
racy than to any other. What are the lavoriie maxims of democracy i A strict observance of JUSTICE and 
PUBLIC FAITH, anil a steady adherence to virtue.''— £///o/'s Edition Va. Debules,puge 222. 

" There are in this State, and in every S'ale in tlie Union, many who are decided enemies of the Union. Reflect 
on the probable conduct of such men. What will they do 1 They will bring amendments which are local in their 
nature, and which they know will not be accepted. Tliey will never propose such amendments as ihey ihink 
would be obtained. Disunion will be their object. We contend for a well-regulated democracy V— Ibid., p. 224. 

Long after the ado[Jtion of the Constitution, and even when party spirit vvas-wrought up to 
the highest .state of ferment on merely controversial points, but when all piofessed to be equal 
friends of the Constitution, Mr. Jefferson, in his inaugural address, illustiated our democratic 
political identity in the following appropriate manner. He said : 

" During the contests of opinion through which we have passed, the animation of discussions and of exertions has 
sometimes worn an aspect which mi^ht impose on strangers imused to think freely, and to speak and to write what 
they think ; but this being now decided by the voice of th nation, announced according to the rules of the consti- 
tution, all will of course arrange tlieniselvcs under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common 
good. All, loo, will bear in mind this sacred principle, lliat, though the will of the majortiy is in all cases to pre- 
vail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonaljle ; that the minorily possess their equal rights, which equal laws 
must protect, and to violate would lie oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one hand and one mind ; 
let us restore to social intercourse that hannony and affection without which liberty, and even lile itself, are but 
dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which man- 
kind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, :is 
wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody p'ersecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, 
during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long lost liberty, it was not 
wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore— that this should be 
more felt and feared by some and le.'is by others- and sliould divide opinions as to measures of safely ; but every dif- 
ference of opinion is not a ditTerence of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same prin- 
ciple. WE ARE ALL REPUBLICANS ; WE ARE ALL FEDERALISTS. If there be any among us who would 
wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican (orm, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safe- 
ly with which error of opinion may be tolerated, wheic reason is left free to combat it," 

Now is it not obvious, from the solemn asseveration of these eminent men, conspicuous as 
they were for their opposing controversial opinions, that it never entered the heads of our revo- 
lutionary patriots to exclude any portion of the friends of our independence and of the con>titu- 
tion from the great political fold of democracy, and denounce them as aristocrats, as enemies of 
democracy, as an anti-dernucratic party, and that, merely because they may have attained superior 
intelligence, education, wealth, integrity, and considtrution in society ? Nay, who ever dream- 
ed of such injustice -until this age of political huinbuggery, emanating from a frnudulent and 
wicked "spoils dynasty]" Will those political quacks and imposters have the impudence to 
pretend that Stephen Girard, in passing from the obscure state of a poor boy to the enviable 
condition of a " millionaire," by his own industry and economy, was at the same time necessa- 
rily transformed into an aristocrat or " an enemy to the cause of democracy 1" His whole life 
and his last act in death — his will — fully attest the contrary. He was horn and died a demo- 
crat .' The poor logic by which these men would argue the exclusion of the wealth and intel- 
ligence of society from the democratic cause, would operate to the exclusion of Mr. Van Buren 
himself and most of his adherents, who have contrived this humbug to deceive and flatter those 
who may not possess these advantages; but, being considered as constituting the most numerous 
portion of our citizens, would be likely to subserve their political purposes by the success of the 
trick. They also calculate that, by denouncing all the opponents of Mr. Van Buren as enemies 
of the democratic cause, they may decoy many into his ranks on account of their partiality for 
true democratic principles, and may frighten many others from abandoning him, lest they be 
read out of the democratic school. But fortunately for the salvation of the country, the good 
sense of vast numbers is daily undeceiving them by aid of the flood of light that is continually 
revealing the wickedness of his own anti-democratic course, and teaching them that to abandon 
him is the best evidence of their adhesion to the cause of democracy. But let the partisans of 
Mr. Van Buren speak for him and themselves. M^illiam M. Holland, his favored biographer, 
explicitly says that all the opponents of Mr. Van Buren's administration are enemies to democra- 
cy. At page 337, he makes the following precious admissions by way of boasting, viz : 

1. "It may be safely stated thai two-thirds of the public presses in this country are opposed to the principles 
of the present adini)iisl ration. 

2. " The periodical reviews and literary journals lea?i against the di nocratic cause, without a single ex- 
ception. 

3. " Public seminaries of instruction are under the same bias. 

4. " The learned professions are under the same bias. 

5. " And a vast preponderance of the literary and oratorial talent of the country are under the same bias. 

6. " Wealth, fashion, &c., are, to a great extent, arrayed against the democratic cause. 

" How, then," he vauntincly and significantly asks, " does it haiipeii that the people [minus the above] are guided 
by opposite seutimeiits 7" 



Presiiiiuiig thai tho rc:uier has a cuiiosity to know what these sentiments are, I place before 
him the followin,? brief extract from the same book, (page 9 of the preface,) where those senti- 
ments, whicli hnvf been generally atlributed to tiie supiiorters of Mr. Van Buren, and those of 
his opponents in relation to them, are clearly contrasted in a few words. He says : 

" III submitting to iho jmblic this coiUriUilion ta the supFf" "'" ciemocralic princii.les, llie auihor is well aware 
ihal lie shall not cscajx? the censure of tliose who anlicipalp tlie Jpslruclion of all political and religious trulli, by 
I lie leveling spirit of democracy."' 

He then add.s with levity, that he makes no question of "the sincerity of their melancholy 
forebodings," and di.*plays a frivolous attempt to escape from the just censure to which he al- 
ludes, by alleging that '"' if, by denioeracy, you understand" what Mr. Roger C'ollard says of it, 
he is "well pleased with such democracy."' Now the demociacy which Roger Colhud speaks 
of, is precisely the democracy which the whole American people aimed at when they adopted 
the constitution, as described in the foregoing extracts from Marshall and .Jefferson, and quite 
Ibe reverse of the destructive schemes of that misnomer and humbug called " Van Buren de- 
mocracy," of whose doctrines in common with his party, the following is a summary, as alleged 
to have been "always cherished by him," on the united authority, direct and indirect, of the 
New York Evening Post, the Boston Quarterly Review, the Democratic Review, and the 
Globe, viz : 

I. That "anurchv is but a slate of transition." * ,• , r , ■> 
■1: That '■ luinianrpsulalions [law and justice] produce an arlilicial and luijusl disliibulu.n ol ijroi^crly. 

3. That " the only real enemies to workingmen are their own employers." ,■ ,i, .„ ,v,o. ,^ 

4. Thai " wages are worse than slave lahor ;" that " the Northern system of labor is more oppressive ihau that of 

the Soiilli." ., 

o. That "universal education is a ini'ckcry. and promises no reliil lor p.jverty.; ^ _^ 

6. Thai '■■ poverlv is only to be rtincdial l.y uarand bloodshed, of the poor against llie ricu.' 

7. That " the sub-Treasiirv is pavintr the way for that catastrophe to come up. ^_ 
-S. That " the cause of ihe'inequaUly of cimdjtions is attributable to relii):ioii and the cleriry. • 

9. That " the comi^lete and final destruction uf the clergy is necessary to elevate the laboring classes. 

10. That " the cviW of society are not to be cured by converting men to lie Christianity ol the church.^ 

II. That •'unconiproiiiisinghestilhy to the whole Unking sy.stem, and all incorporations, is the 'first si. p of 

Iheir reform," , , , ,. 

12. That " every friend to ' corporations' is an enemy to the laborer. , . ,, «,.,,„ o 

13 That " hereditary property is a ereat evil ;" that "at a man s death, his i.roprrly most go to the hta e. 

H. Finally, that '< tlVr.l's ol marri.ige should be abolished ■,- and give place to the hcentiousness of the natural 
stale, of course. 

Of the destructive tendcncv of the "leveling q.irit" of Van Burcnism, not democracy, ac- 
cording to the sentiments ju-st quoted, we have thousands of evidence ; the very atmosphere we 
breathe is pregnant wit!i tliem; the rcsolulions uf Yan Buren meeihigs held in the hearts of 
our cities, previously prepared by designing leaders, testily to it; and the speeches by which such 
proceedino-s are urged in various quarters, show the direction whence they come. Take the 
single resolution f-om many others like it, passed at a Van Buren meeting in Philadelphia not 
a year a<ro, viz; "That the doctrine of vested rig/i/^ is at vaiiance with the demoeiatic princi- 
ple ; tha't chartered privileges (or corporations) are incompatible with freedom and equality ! 
Take the declaration of Mr. Senator Wright, of New York, in a speech delivered in his own 
State durin- the last summer, and republished in the l{ichmoiid Enquirer, viz: that "we have 
tiow reached the perio<i when it is lH;lieved to be a common y.uuou to suppose Ihat the revolu- 
firm was complete ,-" that " it is timk, therefore, that we should inquire /w what ii-as that ?Tfc- 
lution iiuflertakcn r that "it was lo dismiss monarchy, akistochact, and nrspoTisMl 
IVow the drift of all this, and a thousand other similar announcem.^nts and proclamations, is too 
obvious to be blinked— we cannot close our eyes upon them ; if we do, they are thundered in 
our ears; and if we stidf them up t.. exclude the odious sound, this revenant oi Jacobinism 
haunts our most inward thoughts. We all know that monarchy has been driven Irom these 
chores— what, then, remains of the enumerated objects above, to complete the revoltJtion, "to 
be dismissed," (or rather " lo be despatched" in tlie technicality of the guillotine, ) but the 
" aristocracy " as Mr. Wright terms it, of wealth, intelligence, and civilization itself, exemplihed, 
nr rathci personified, in the thrifty, indu.striou.s, nioral, and religious portions of the community; 
they -till " remain," ami are characterized by Mr. Wright as a "despotism yet to be dismisseo ; 
and "vested rights," by which everv man of property holds his lands, his houses, and othe 
ofTects are in set terms, made war upon by the Van Buren partisans of Philadelphia and ^ev 
York;' in which latter city dilVerenl classes of them have, in advance, adopted the appropriate 
name of in«i.-PAWs, hutt-km)k»s, point-kndkks, &c. 

•Ml of the.^c and other demonstrations made on the imblic miiid at a distance, are but emana- 
tions from the central executive machinery at Washington, where public sentiment is manufac- 
tured by a conclave under the superintendence of Amos Kendall, and the clandestine influence 
of Mr Vax Bchk:^. Some of the outgivincs of that /inj/a were made by Amos Kendall and 
Mr. Benton, in short speeches at the Hickory Club festival given on the 5th December, 1S32. 
\mong other things iu the same strain, Kendall said : 

" ThP TTnit(»d «tptfa have their younc nobility system. Its head u the Bank of the United Stales ; its right arm, 
., protectiii" larilf and manufactuunL' nionopoUes : its left, growimr Stale debts and Slate incorporations." 

Thus in a breath, and with that imperial brevity so out of jdace as to cast an air of the bur- 
ks(]ue upon it, doe.= Amos Kendall and his associates and prompter put undcF the bans .of the 



ew 



Federal Government, our whole system of import duties, manufactures, State negotiations for 
internal improvements, and State incorporations of every description, of which corporate insti- 
tutions the flourishing and provident State of Pennsylvania alone has upwards of two hundred- 

The New York Keview for tlie month of July, in an article on the Constitutional History of 
Greece, as I learn from the National Intelligencer of the 15th August, speaks volumes on this 
subject, of which I subjoin an extract, which is a brief hut pointed illustration of our own case, 
viz : 

" Thucydides has sketched the whole philosophy of a ' reign of terror,' the mystery oi constructive majorities, 
by which a few b.il J and crafty spirits dictate their own opinions to the multitudes they affect to obey, and measures 
opposed by almost every individual of a great mass are seemingly adopted with perfect unanimity,"in a few words, 
as exactly descriptive of certain recent events as if they had been expressly intended as a history of them It is 
curious lii see what is called, liy the political wire-drawers of the day, ' party discipline,' or, in plain Enelish, the 
art of ihinkiTig for the people, as fimiliar to the demagogues of antiquity as to those even of this privileged age." 

Arid yet, what most unequivocally points out the origin and concert of action I have just 
adverted to, (which can be fully proved by a committee vested with power to send for persons 
and papers,) is (he fact, that Mr. Van Buren has, in the last ])aragraph but one of his late n)es- 
sagc at the comniencement of the present Congrefs, virtually endorsed this very denunciation of 
Kendall's against all State incorporations ,• to accomplish the overthrow of which he invokes the 
■spirit of revolution, per fas aut nefas, peaceably, if it can be so accom;)lished, but forcibly, and 
by torrents of blood, if necessary. His words are : 

" To remove the influences whioh had thus gradually grown up amon? us— to deprive them of their deceptive 
advantages — to te.st Ihem by the light of wisdom and truth— to oppose the force which they concentrate in their 
support — all this was necessarily the work of time, even anion: a people so enlightened and pure as that of the 
United States. In most other countries, perhaps, it could only be accomplished ihroueh that series of revolutionary 
inovemenls, which are too often found necessary to efiect any great aiul radical reform: but it is the crowninj; 
merit of our institutions, that they create and nourish, in the vast majority of our people, a disposition and a power 
peaceably to remedy abuses which have elsewhere caused the etTusion of rivers rf blood, and the sacrifice ot thou- 
sands of the human race. The result thus far is mnst honoralile to the self-denial, Ihc intellicence, and the 
patriotism of our citizens; it justifies the confident hope that they will carry through the reform which has been so 
well begun, and that they will go slill further than they have yet gone in illustrating the important truth, that a 
people as free and enlightened as ours, will, iclienever it becomes ?iecessari/, show themselves to be indeed capable 
of self-government, by voluntarily adopting iijipropriute remedies for every abuse, and submittint: to temporary 
sacrifices, however great, to insure their permanent welfare-'' 

I grant that this endorsement is made in Mr. Van Buren's accustomed indirect, parenthetical, 
and equivocal m, inner, not so easily comprehended by tiie generality of readers, except by the 
aid and comparison of correlative facts; Itut u;ion viewing the whole connexion, it is easy to per- 
ceive the ardent purpose so concealed, and for which, if any thing, he should be held the more 
responsible. The confirmations, also, of this purpose of revolution, were they wanted, are 
abundantly supplied by the subsequent acts of bis despotic majority in the two Houses of Con- 
gress, in destroying the busiyie.ss corporations of this i)istrict as a commencement, in attempting 
to disgrace the States' internal improvement stock by refusing to assume their debts unasked, and 
in attempting to establish a standing army of 200,000 men, under the pretence of regulating 
the militia, but to revive the sedition latu by the afiplicalion of the army regulations to the voters 
throughout the country, to the extent of the two-hundred thousand militia so intended to be 
brought under the army regulations. 

If these few facts, selected from thousands that might be recited, are not sutTicient to prove 
the settled purpose of revolution, till ati authentic itivestigation by a committee of Congress 
may have an opportunity to do so, I \\\l\ here add only one other ex-officio manouvre to throw 
further light upon it. 

Amos Kendall, late Postmaster General, who has been authorized to withdraw from the cabi- 
net expressly to launch upon an editorial crusade against the elective franchise of the people, in 
order to accomplish the re-election of Mr. Van Buren, has, in the 3d number of the extia 
Globe, issued a bulletin, of a coluirm in length, addressed to all those of our fellow-citizens 
whotn he pleases lo denominate "democrats" — whom, on a previous occasion, in his circular 
petitioning for subscriptions lo his paper, he defined to be "farmers, mechanics, and working- 
men," excluding all other citizens from that honor. In his bulletin, he says : 

"Fourth of ,Iuly.— It liecomes democrats this year lo go into the celebration ol our creal anniversary, not with 
hilarity and mirth, tnil with solemnity and fervor. They should go into it wiili somethinc of the feeling which our 
forefathers did in 1778 and 1779, when the British hirelings were~ attemptins lo quench the flame of liberty in Ihe 
best blood of America," &,c- &c. 

" Let democrats reflect on these things as they go to celebrate the Fourth of .July. Let the reflection inake them 
serious and thoughtful. Let them remember the pledges of their forefathers to each other, on this sacred day in 1777- 
'78-'79-'80-'Sl," ikc. " Let litis remembrance inspire them with the resolution of their fatliers, and induce them to 
swear Iheir fathers' oath, to live free or die." '■ It is not n.iw they are called on to defend their liberlv in fields of 
blood. Through your own right of sufTrafe, democrats of America, the enemy attacks you, and ill that is your 
pre.'sent defence. Your weapons are as yet those of peace, and by a resolute use of them, the occasion for resort to 
other means of defence may be forever averted. But should you, bv lislleness and indifference, sutler thi' enemy 
to get posses.'ioii of your Government, of its Treasury, and' its army, you may not be able hereafter to place 
in Congress, in the Executive chair, or even in your State Legislatures, the representatives of your choice," &r. &c. 

" Swear on the Fourth of July lo avert Ihat catastrophe." '' Band together, and prepare to March to the polls, not 
with arms, or knives, or clubs, lo beat and butcher your fellow-cilizenst but with hearts firmly resolved, by an honest 
and independent exercise of the right of sutfrage, to avert the possible necessity of inarching hereafter in battle 
array lo put down usurpation ! !" 

The pos.sible election of General Harrison is, then, by this miscreant, Kendall, made the oc- 
casion to excite the partisans of Mr. Van Buren, to prepare, in that event, to march "in battle 



array" to put down "usurpation /" as lie presumes to stigmatize the success of him or any 
one else at the polls, over Mr. Van Buren ! Is not this an avowal that the present party of 
oflice-liolders already claim tho Govenimeiit as riiniii o wx ; and that they propose, and are 
preparing, to defend its possession, with blood and civil waii ! if they can put a sulficient 
number of the people in the mood, in addition to the means of the "Treasury and the army" 
already in their hands — nay, that Mr. Van Buren himsell' has authorized, and is responsilde for 
this threat? If any one doubts this, let him hear in mind that tills bulletin was issued a few 
days before the ])a^sage of the sub-Treasury l)ill legalizing their posession of the Treasury, in 
all probability to stimulate l\w purtt/ staves in the House where the bill had slept, anil to encour- 
age them with the belief that such an appeal would have a good effect on their drooping cause at 
the polls. Let him also bear in mind, th.it llioLigh the bill was ])as.*ed two or three days btfore 
the Fourth of July, that hallowed day, at 12 o'clock, was desecrated and disgraced by Mr. Van 
Buren, to sign ihe bill, as " another declaration of indejiendence !" and that the arrangement 
was so announced iti advance by tin; Globe, for stage elfect, at the celebrations of the ainiiver- 
sary, as far as the announcement could reach, in time — and that it was so glorified in Philadel- 
phia by the paiitt. Also let him remember that Mr. Van Buren is the very man who returned 
his cordial thanks to a committee of Philadelphia Van Buren men, a year or two ago, " for the 
offer of 10,()00 minute men armed and equipped as \\\s.Jirst legion, to execute his orders issued 
or to be issued ! !" and if all these things do not satisfy him of what is intended, if they dare, 
I should say, his dulness of upprehcnsion u'he?i his liberiy is in danger, but thk bkti-i;]! fits 
HIM Foii A PALACE SLAVE !! Here is a copy of the resolution and the letter of thanks 
alluded to : 

" 1. Resolved, Thai the moi-p pfFpctually to uphold ihe conslilulional Govprnmenl of our choice and of our love ; 
to secure the v\i.\A enforcing of the laws ol Congress, and the orders of the Executive, pither now issued, or which 
may hereafter lie issued ; for the presprvalion and protection of the public lands from the t;rasp of speculators, and 
securing the nation its constituiional specie currency ; to protect United Slates officers in the dischart'e of iheir 
public duties, and at the same time tlie public peace from oulrase: We, the soveieisn jipoplc, do hold ourselvps 
ready to organize in this city and county of Philadolphia, a first volunieer Ipgion of ton iliousand men, to be as 
shortly as pnssible fully arjned and equipppd, lh>' saniP to be callf-d The Philadelphia UnilPd States Minute Men." 

[For this pledge ot support. President Van Buren returned his 'sincere acknowledsjnienis' in the fillowing 
letter .-J 

'• Washington, May 29, 1837. 

"Gentlemen:— I have the honor to acknowledse the receipt of your letter communicating tn me the proceed- 
ings of a large meetine of tlie citizens of the city aiiil county ol^ Philadelpliia, wiiliout distinction of party, held in 
Independence Square, on the 22d instant. 

'' It is gratifying to me to learn from those proceedings, that the course pursupd liv myself and those associated 
with me in the Executive branch of the Government, upon the important subjects of the currency, fireign trade, 
and the public lands, receives the cordial apprcbalion of so meritorious and respectable a portion of my fellow- 
citizens. 

"For this expression of iheir confidence and good will, and for the accompanying pledge of support and co- 
operation in upholding the authority of the constitution and laws, I beg you to inaCe to those you represent my 
sincere acknowledgments. 

" Thanking you, gpnilemen, for llieflattpring and friendly manner in which you have performed the duty assign- 
ed to you, I am, veiT respectfully, your oliedinnl servant, I\l. VAN BUREN. 

" To Messrs. F. Stoever, Israel Yovng, and Joseph Dean."' 

Though the foregoing classification of Mr. Van Buren's supporters, as cmhracing the farmers, 
mechanics, and workingmen, he in a very material degree false — yet it shows what desperate as- 
sumptions the party can resort to, in claiming for their supporters the most numerous classes of 
society, in O'ller, if possible, to flatter and win them to their desperate cause, under the captiva- 
ting banner of democracy, as if thes^ classes constituted the whole democracy or exclusive demo- 
crats, and could dispense with all other classes and callings in society as drones, intruders, and 
nuisances. Whereas, on the contrary, does not the good sense of the farmers, mechanics, and 
working men, teach them that a well-organized community must have the aid of the learned 
professions, lawyers, doctors, divines, the merchants, tradesmen, factors, and transporters, em- 
bracing the whole of our shipping community, &c. &c., whose services, at moderate fees, or 
commissions, enable tiie former to prosecute their fanning and other labors, and thereby econo- 
mize time and profits in their several pursuits, upon the simple principle and first elements of 
political economy so admirably illustrated by Adam Smith, in his dissertation on " the division 
of labor !" 

But the truth i.s, that this classification of their party supporters is a wholesale calumny. 
The real substratum of their party is coinposed of the tenf.ts of Tom Paine, Fanny V^'right, 
Robert Dale Owen, Orestes A. Brownson, and Wm. M. Holland, cemented by the promise oi' 
sub-Treasury spoils. Independent, however, of this cement, T grant that the captivating licen- 
tiousness of those doctrines has seized upon the ardent passions of many inconsiderate persons, 
and that a vast many others are deceived by the catchwords of "democracy" and "the largest 
liberty," not heeding whither the siren notes of their seducers would lead them ; while the Irue 
democracy of the country, that is, "the advocates of a well-regulated democracy," are utterly 
oppo.sed to their destructive schemes, and are prepared to cast their votes for Haiibison ami 
DEMocuACT against Van Buuen and mo!»ahchy. 



In connexion with the above exposure of the gratuitous classification of Van Buren radical 
Democracy, and their revolutionary doctrines, propagated under specious deceptions, it is proper 



now, in order to bring us up to the point of ilcpartiire, or commencement of this nzriEw, to re 
call the attention of the reader to the fact that Mr. Van Burcn's hiographer, William M. Hoi" 
land, Esq., also virtually assumes the same classification of hi."? supporters, as composing thereat 
peoplt, the DEMociiACT of the country, to the exclusion of many other important classes and 
callings of society, as we have seen ; and that he declares that there is " a wonderful harmony 
suhsisting between the members of said party." He then goes on to explain how and wherefore 
this harmony is produced — which is so pregnant with meaning, more than meets the eye at a 
superficial view, that I shall here transcribe it for reflection. At page 359 he says: 

" Bui the true cause of the sur(irising harmony that exists between the President [Jackson] and the people is 
either not understood by the antidemocratic party, or is misrepresented. The trl'th ih, (says he,) that the Presi- 
dent has been sustained in his measures, because tliey have all been liased upon a careful observalion and thorough 
knowledge of ihe popular will. He has colltctcd and embodied the wishes of the people ; he has felt himself con- 
stantly to be their agent and minister ; and, if he has .seemed to lead public opinion, it has been because he is en- 
dued with the penetration which has enabled him to foresee its current, and, by throwing himself at its head, to 
bring its full force to sustain him." 

With an eye to the machinery for the manufacture of public sentiment, established by an official 
junta at Washington, to which I have already alluded, (but which can never be fully exposed, 
except by a committee of investigation, disembarrassed of the impediments of the present Exec- 
utive, who is interested in its concealment, after the example of his predecessor in defeating the 
invcstigatiuns of other committees,) it is plain that, in so ^^culkding audcuihudjpng" the wishes 
of the people, as here alleged, a portion of Executive leaten might easily have been thrown in 
to ferment and modify their intrinsic character, and thereby derive their true origin from the 
Executive wishes, in bringing their full force to sustain himself. But, especially of Mr. Van 
Buren, our author, page 362, says: 

" No instance of bad faith, no example of double dealing, no act oi duplicity or disengenuousnesa has ever been 
fastened upon HIS political character. His friends challenge the strictest soTnuny on this point, and invite the 
most unscrupulous exposure." " The public will not be satisfied with vague general charges— proof must be given 
uf sjiecific acts." " Wiilioul such proof, the common sense of mankind will be slow to believe that his regular and 
steady progress towards the highest honors of the Government, through a long course of public service, is ascribable 
to the loic artifices of duplicity and cunning." " His success as a political leader will rather continue to be as- 
cribed to the superiority of his genius, the extent of his attainments, the intrinsic excellence of his character, and 
to hii admirable knowledge of -inen. His clear perception of truth, his predominating good sense, the honesty of 
his own motives, and his sagacity in detecting the motives op other.?, have indeed"endowed him with a rare 
talent of harmonizing, concentrating, and DIRECTING the varied feelings and exertions of the members 

OF A GREAT PARTY." 

A party I so constructed I as we have seen I Yes, he does harmonize, concentrate, and direct 
that miserable partt ; so that, out of a great deal of fustian, we have come to some truth, at 
least. And, taking the following from the same concluding chapter 26th, page 355, we find 
the like mixture of truth, with an attempt to impose a gratuitous assertion upon the credulity of 
his readers who are not better informed, and ending, indeed, with a precious avowal. He says: 

" The firm belief of the writer in the most ultra democratic doctrines, and his partiality towards the subject of 
this narrative, as the champion of those doctrines, he hiis not any wliere affected to conceal," (He says) '■ No doubt 
this strong bias of his mind has led him to take views of certain p'ublic events widely different from lliose which are 
entertained by persons of an opposite political faith. He has, however, strenuously endeavored not to distort, con- 
ceal, or misrepresent facts. The incidents (says lie) of I\Ir. Van Buren's life have been fairly slated, and his opin- 
ions fully displayed." " The friends of Mr. \ an Buren (he continues, page S.jG) ascribe his remarkable elevation 
to superior ability and virtue ; his enemies charge it to intrigue and accident. It appears, however, to be universally 
admitted th.it he is endowed with extraordinary abilities of some kind." (But, says he) " During many of the ear- 
liest years of his public life, he was denied not only honesty lail ability. In regard to the latter endowment, the 
mouth of calumny has been eftectually stopped." " With regard lo his jnlegrity and patriotism, and the accordance 
of his political principles with the true interests of his cotmtVy, a similar unanimity of opinion cannot, in the present 
generation, be e.vpected." 

The reader doubtless perceives, from these evidences respecting the classification of partisan 
supporters,- their doctrines ; the measures taken to collect and embody their wishes ; the skill of 
their present leader in harmonizing, concentrating, and directing such a party ; the admissions 
impugning his honesty and ability in early life, and avowing the present want of unanimity of 
opinion in regard to his integrity, h\s patriotism, and the accordance of his political principles 
with the true interests of his country — that much light is gained towards a clear comprehension 
of the bill of indictment and specifications which I now propose to give in outline. In the course 
of its rehearsal, the reader will also be prepared to discern how admirably Mr. Van Vuren's de- 
fective education, his native cunning, and the tortuous course of his political life, adapted him 
for that consummate imposture by which he has frequently supplanted his political rivals, or, 
when failing to do so, has given in his adhesion to them for ulterior vieios, and has finally captured 
the Presidency, as if filched by legerdemain, from the )3ewildeheh senses op a dbceived 
People! His biographer, page 1.5, says that — 

"After acquiring the rudiments of an English education, he became a student in the academy in his native vil- 
lage," wliere "he made considerable progress in the various liranclies of English literature, and gained some knowl- 
edge of Latin. It may be inferred, however, [continues lie, and such an admission in such a place renders it 
certain,] that all these acquisitions were not creat in amouni, as he left the Academy when but fourteen years of 
age to Itcgin the study of his profession." [Note. — " The period of study preparatory to admission to the liar was 
seven years fur candidates who, like the subject of tliis memoir, had not the benefit of a collegiate education." (Page 
26.) So that, to make up the defects of education, his cue was, to take time by the forelock", with a fraud upon the 
legal regulation in tlie case, by affecting to commence his legal studies at f lurteen, (which is ridiculous,) in order to 
evade the legal disability to be admitted to the bar at the age of 21, in wliich he nevertheless succeeded.] " Such 
(says our author, page 16) was the preparation with which Martin Van Buren, at the age of fourteen years, com- 



mcncpd the study of law." [Upou which he exclaims] " What an encouraging example does his subsequent suc- 
cess present to the young ninn of our country ! Few," says he, '' are denied advantages of education equal to those 
which he possessed." 

He then says : 

" It is an interesting matter of speculation to conjecture what would have been the etTect of a regular education, 
so called, upon the mind of the subject of this memoir 7 Ho has shown himself lo be a profound reasoner, al least, 
in his profession ; yet he prol itbly knew lilile in early life of the rules of losic, or of the metaphysical disquisitions 
which have professed lo teach tho art of ihinking, from the days ( f Thaks lo those of Thomas Brown. He evinces 
freedom, accuracy, and ccpiousness in the use ol (the English) language ; vrl he had, as we have seen, but a slicht 
acquaintance with any of the languages of antiquity. He has acquired habits of patient and accurate research. bi:t 
not from the diagrams of Kucllil, or the mystic steps of analytic malhemalica. 

" Such examples of disiinsuishrd success" (cominues our infatuated author) " ought, perhaps,to excite some more 
thorough inquiry into the usefulness [or uselessness !] in all cases, of our i-rdinaiy \ lutine of studies." 

" Some persons possess, beyond a doubt," (says hei " strong natural aptitudes ttl excel in certain departments, and 
great natural inability to reach even moderaie'i xcellence in others. Ought not a true system of education [the 
Van Bnren .system] to turn the peculiar powers of the puiiil to the best account, and lo wasie no tinte in attempting 
to render him a proficient in those branches of scinnce, litrraiure, or art, for which he has neither c?pacity nor in- 
clination 1 If so, is not that system of questionable utility which forces every student, at a unifuniL pace,'through 
the same round of mathematical and classical discipline, without reference to'the peculiar letuJencies of his native 
talents 7 

"Again:" (says he, page 18,) "in most of our higher seminaries, the same course of instruction, the same text- 
books, the same principles in literature, science, and the arts, are presented, year after year, to successive genera- 
tions." " It is not unreasonable to suppose, that young minds, thus moidded upon a uniform system, will generally 
fall into common and uniform habits of thottcht, and will be led to reason, believe, and act precisely as theirfathers 
and leacliers have reasoned and believed before them. The strong tendency of the system is to repress inquiry and 
original investiiialion, lo eradicate eveiy idinsye.cracy of intellect, and merely to infuse into a jiassive mind tlie 
views which have been passively received by t'liose who teach them ! To this'kind of discipline Blanin Van Bu- 
ren was never subjected I Whether lo his advantage or loss can only be a matter of conjecture ! !" 

Whether to liis advantasc or loss can only be matter of conjecture ! Grant you, Mes.srs. 
Holland, Butler, and A'andrrpoei, at least in 1835, when ymir glorification of Van Biiren was 
published, and when the lights of parallel cases of the wild weeds of innovation and disorder 
that are w^nt to spring up in the uncultivated soil of ardent and restle.<s minds, only pointed 
out the probable grounds of conjecture ; but now, in 1810, facts and their consequences liave been 
developed in sufficient abundance "to satisfv the world" that, if such want of "discipline in the 
principles and doctrines of our ' forefathers,' " which a regultr education would havetauglit him, 
did not redound to his own individual loss, by eradicating the " idio.syncracies of his inleHect" 
and " repressing their nalive propensity" to inflict innocallon and disorder upon our long-ap- 
proved system of Government, the calamities which these undiscijilined propensities of his idio- 
syncracy of intellect have brought on the country, through a course of wild experiments, con- 
ceived by the whim of an untutored mind, like that of Phetox, aspiring to ride in and conduct 
the chariot of the sun, do most fully declare at whose cost the experiiiienls of Martin V.\jr 
BtTRF.N have since been made, and add one more to the thousands of lessons bv which poor hu- 
man nature has been taught never to entrust itself to the vagaries of a wild, viisionarv mind, un- 
disciplined in ethics, morality, and religion, unbalance by contemjdating the beautiful symmetry 
and unchangeable consistency of the physical sciences, so xju ell calculated to curb the political 
adventurer, and to keep him •within thk nou^ns of prudf.nck, and thi appmoved f.xpe- 
KiENCE OF WISER HEADS AND BETTER PATRIO'J'S. 



FIRST PERIOD. 



" Even at that early age, too, irouRTEEN, when he commenced the study of law.] r>Ir. Van Buren is rep- 
resented, by those who Icnew him, to havo had a spirit of observation, with regard xr^ pubbc events, a.m\u\p personal 
dispositio7is and characters vi tlwse arovnd him, which gave un earnest of his future proficiency in the science 
OF POLITICS and of the human heart." 

IHulhuuVs Life and Political Opiniom of Martin \'un Euren, page IG. 



I. Mr. Van Biiren.<s had faith, double dealii)/^, and d'singeuuousne.ss.--, extuijilifud in the 
case of his conduct to De Witt Clinton : — united with the Hudson and Hartford Convention 
Federalists in opposition to Mr. Madison, and the lute war against England : — Rufus King, 
James A. Hmnilion, S(C., his political coadjutors. 

Mr. Van Buren's biographer, William M. Holland, Esq., whether hired or volunteered in the 
cause of his glorification, says: "No instance of bad faith, no example of double dealing, no 
act of rUtplic ty or disingenuousness, has ever been /rw/f/?fr/ upon his political character ;" and 
then ciiallenges his opj)onpnts to "the strictest scrutiny." Mr. Hollntid falls far short of sus- 
taining this exemption, as his own book atTords iiiany evidences sulliciently subversive of his 
assertion, even without further scrutiny and reference to other authorities abundantly at hand. 

It is charged on Mr. Van Buren by a respectable cili/.cn of his own Stale, and confirmed by 
another, both of whom know his history intime^ely well, and are personally known to the writer 
of this review, that "his whole political life is stamped with inconsistency, treachery, and dis- 
simulation ;" and that "his most liberal proffers of friendship have been ewifily followed by per- 



10 

secution and neglect." Of the truth of this, nianj' illustrations have been given in the political 
writings of both. Let a few instances in the case of his game of "fast anil loose' with De 
Witt Clinton suflice, viz: In 1812, Mr. Van Buren was in habits of confiiiential ami friendly 
intercourse with Mr. Clinton, and supported his nomination for the Presidency against Mr. 
Matiison ; (« fact of general notoriety, and admitted by Holland, page 90.) In 1813, after 
the defeat of Mr. Clinton, when his popularity proved an insuHicient ladder for Mr. Van Buren 
to rise by, the latter " changed front," and became the advocate of Mr. Madison and the war. 
(^Sanie authority, with much boasting, pages 90, 91.) During several years Mr. \'an Buren 
had opposed Clinton's scheme of connecting the waters of Erie and the Hudson by a canal bear- 
ing their name, and finally, on the 13th April, 1816, accomplished the defeat of a bill appropri- 
ating §250, 000 a year during eight years, for that object. — (Memoir of Marti?! Van Buren by 
a citizen of New York, page 20, and his opposition to it acknowledged by Holland page 93.) 
In 1817, jVIr. Van Buren having failed through seven years' exertions to destroy the popularity 
of Mr. Clinton, adopted the temporizing course of wearing a double front, one for Clinton''s 
friends and one for his own, at a legislative caucus held in Albany for the nomination of Gov- 
erniir. He had, through his organ, the Albany Argus, reconunemled " toleration and liberality" 
among those who " may receive and reciprocate favors." He had procured it to be |)recon- 
certed among his friends, that, should Tvlr. Clinton be nominated, they (his triemls) should rise 
and retire from the body. But at that conjuncture, when the ballots had been counted, showing 
a majority in Clinton's favor, Mr. Van Buren ro.-e, and, to the utter confusion and astonishment 
of his co-partisans, moved that the nomination be unanimous. But the minority retired accord- 
ing to agreement, and left Van Buien with his new political associates. — (Memoir of Martin 
Van Buren by a citizen of New York, page 2ft.) In 1818, he again forsook Mr. Clinton, 
after discovering that the " toleration and liberality" recommended by his press, the Albany Ar- 
gus, had not produced its intended effect; for, " so far from Mr. Clinton's ' recipiocating the 
favors he had received,' he would hardly extend to him a cold civility." But the humiliating 
reflection to .Mr. Van Buren that he had nothing to e.xjjecl from the confidence of Mr. Clinton, 
in one who had thus suddenly abandoned his own party, did not prevent him from undertaking 
the forlorn enterprise of "worming himself again into their confidence," which he accomplished 
by becoming the advocate of the Hudson and Erie canal. — (See same Memoir, <SfC., pages 28, 
29.) Finally, on the occasion of the sudden death of Mr. Clinton, when Mr. Van Buren had 
attained to a seat in the Senate of the United States, he seized upon this favorable position to 
become the eulogist of that great statesman before the congregated intelligence of the nation. 
" Notwithstanding all the circumstances of his ungrateful and base treatment of him, and the 
strong sympathies which his untimely end must have inspired in every breast, Martin Van Bu- 
ren ventured to improve the opportunity to recover the standing he had lost, by an effiirt to turn 
the sympathies of the peojde to his own account." " In rising to announce the death of a favorite 
Son and idolized statesman, before the assembled talents of a great people, he dissembled a spirit 
of deep humility; he professed to have consigned to the same grave with his illustrious fellow- 
citizen, all his teelings of animosity; and painted his chaiacter in the most iiathetic and enga- 
ging colors, for which lie had artfully prepared himself." "The single fact, " said he, " that the 
greatest pulilic improvement of the age in which we live was commenced under the guidance of 
his councils and splendidly accomplished under his immediate auspices, is of it--elf sufficient to Jill 
the ambition of any man, and to give glory to any name." "This seemingly amazing mag- 
nanimity and disinterestedness of their Senator, who was known to have been the deadly foe ot 
their deceased son, had the wonderful effect that was anticipated. The same tide upon which 
Clinton had been elevated, in opposition to every effort of Van Buren, secret or open, was im- 
mediately mounted by him, and on which he was drifted to the highest honors of the State;" 
[being shortly a'ler elected Governor to succeed Clinton. ] — (See the same Memoir, pages 32, 33. ) 
On the 22d May, 1812, Mr. Madison was nominated for re-election to the Presidency by a 
Congressional caucus at Washington ; and, on the 29lh of the same month, a federal caucus 
of the New York Legislature, held at Albany, nominated De Witt Clinton to oppose him and 
the war measure,* of course, then in contemplation. This nomination, we have seen, Mr. Van 



* Benjamin F. Butler, Esq. (llien Attorney General of the United Statps, and now United States Attorney for the 
city of New York) ilid, in an electioneering li'tter dated in March, 1835, addressed to Hugh A. Garlanci, then a 
member of the Vnginia Legislature, and since elected Clerk of the Housp of Representatives Uy the locofocoes as 
the further fit instrument of their party, undertakes '' to deny that there is any thing in the mere fact of Mr. Van 
Buren's sutipori of Mr. Clinton (right or wrong) 'under the circumstances stated,' to sustain the imputation of 
opposition to the war." (See Holland, p. 91.) Now, thouch this is a gratuitous presumption in face of the fact 
pruned upon Mr. Van Buren by indisputal)le testimony already cited, yet I cannot but note its affinity to BIr. 
Kiichie's pliant doctrine, that there is nothing in his mere opposition to Mr. Van Buren's principal measures of 
the sub Treasury, the army of 200,0110 men, &c., to justify the inference that consistency should array him against 
the man. I know of no one who believes with Mr. Hitchie, unless Mr. Butler does— and of the sincerity of Mr. 
Butler's opinion in such a maiter, " under the circumstances," the reader may form some judgment, when he is 
informed that Blr. Butler, while Attornoy General, frequently retracted his official opinions at the coramalfd of 
General Jackson, and elatiorated opposite ones to suit the President's taste or passion. The ca?e of the Baltimore 
and Washington rail-road is one in point. The company desired that the road should connect with the canal. 
It was referred to the Attorney General, who gave his opinion in favor of the company's right to do so. General 



II 

Buren not merely " concurred in tlie propriety of supporting," as avowed by his biographer, but 
took a very active part, in secret concert, with his then federal coadjutors, James A. Hamilton 
and others, to consummate it by rendering Mr. Madison unpopular, under their violent denunci- 
ations of his war measure, dedued the June following. The author of the "Memoir of Mr. 
Van Buren," .ibove referred to, says, (page \'2,) "Immediately after the declaralion of wnr, the 
federal par!y in Van Buren's county, by his sjjecial reconnnemlalion and personal contrivance, 
held a meeting which was managed altogether by his 'direction ;' and, on the 8ih day of July 
following, the federalists published their address and resolution?, signed by James A. Hamilton 
and others of Mr. Van Buren's creed of politic-, at the time, of which this is as ample: 

"Resolved, Thai tlie war is inipalitic, unnecessary, and disaslrous; and ihal to employ ihc militia in offinsive 
war [that is, to enter Canaila] ia unoun.stitutional.'' 

In further illustration of certain changes of position^ on the political chess board, it may be 
well here to remark that, while Mr. Van Buren and his federal colleagues of that day were thus 
opposing Mr. Madison and the war with vituperative virulence, Mr. Kitchie, editor of the Rich- 
mond Enquirer, was, with equal zeal, su[)i«)rliiig that illu.strious father of the constitution and 
the war. In proof of this, I cite the following f^ict, viz: that, in reporting the proceedings of a 
republican caucus of the Virginia LeiTislature, held at Richmond on the 12th February, 1812, 
to nomniate electors for President, at which Andrew Stevenson, Esq., now minister to England, 
was chairman, and Thomas Kitchie, Esq., editor of the Enquirer, was secretary, Mr. Ritchie 
said of the caucus : 

"But one sentiment reigntd through the meeting ; which was, "to give a.n vmjivideh 
suppoiiT TO Mr. MAnisox.'" — (See report of proceedings of that day.) 

Though Mr. Van Buren did, after the defeat of Mr. Clinton hy the re-election of Mr. Madi- 
son, give his support to his administration and the war generally, yet, as an additional evidence 
of his vacillating course in this as well as the rest of his career, the Senate's Journal of New 
York, tor September, 1814, shows that he opposed the raising of troops, under the recommenda- 
tion of Governor Tompkins, to aid in the war. 

In 1819, Mr. Van Buren successfully advocated the election of Rufus King to the United 
States Senate, and, in a letter tn a friend during the canvass, " pledged his head on the propri- 
ety of supporting Mr. King." "Yet," sut/s the author of the Memoir of Martin Van Bureri, 
page 39, "at that session of the Le;;islalure, in 1819, he (Mr. Van Buren) professed great 
hostility to .Mr. King and his federal friends; and accused De Witt Clinton and his friends of 
the political degenerary of favorins (he election of Rulus King, and therely endangering the 
power, and assailing the princijdes, of the demoeiatic party." I also find a virtual confirinalion 
of the strongest feature of this statcnent in Holland's Life of A'an Buren, pp. 143-'44, where 
he speaks of "an extract from what purports to have been a private letter of Mr. V. B. to a 
political friend." Holland says : " Whether this extract is authentic or false is c^' known to 
the present writer." So important a matter was it (in a work gotten up for the avowed purpose of 
glorifying Mr. Van Buren) to set this affair right, that no one can believe the parties interested, in 
afTording the materials of information to the biographer, would have failed to contradict it if they 
could : therefore, we may understand ilie policy of permitting the authenticity or fulschood oi 
it to remain univXown to hiin. He then, by sheer bravado, gives the extract as the only doc- 
ument, of any kind, which the enemies of Mr. Van Buren have been able to adduce against 
him, which he "leaves, without comment, to the judgment of the reader," viz: 

" 1 should sorely regret to find any flagaing on the subject of l\Ir. King. We [the Albany regency] are committed 
to his support. It i.s" both wise and hmiest ; and we must have no fliittering in our course. Sir King's views lo 
wards us are honoralilc andconect. The Missouri qu(-siion conceals, so far as he is concerned, no plot, and we 
shall give it a true dirccti .n. You know what the feelings and views of (jur IViemls were, when 1 saw you ; and 
you know what we then concliid- d to do. My " Considpraiions," &c , and the aspect of the AUany Argus, will 
show you thai we have entered on the worlc in parnest. We cannot, ihereforr, look back. Let us not, ihen, have 
any halting. I will put my head on its propriety." 

We shall presently see that Mr. Holland, in the same chapter, p. 14C, admits that Mr. Van 
Buren, after .Mr. King's election, united in the instructions of the New York Legislature to 
their Senators against the admission of .Missoun, e.xcejit under a negation of her right to hold 
slaves. And in regard to the authenticity of the above extract, the author of the "Memoir," 



Jackson reiurned the opinion lo Mr. Butler for reconsideration, and Mr. Butler then gave an elaborate opinion to 
the contrary— which stopped the railroad a^oul ItX) yards short of the canal. By the way, in reference to Mr. Gar- 
land's aaency in makin'i fair weathor for Mr. Van buren in Virginia, and his subseriueni call to Washington as 
Clerk 10 theilouse, ii appears to me that it would be a good rule, wtionever we see a conspicuous locofoco broueht 
before the public, as ilio uv^an of an electioneering movemenl at Washington, lo look for him so selected, to make 
a figure in sime hi'jii office shortly aflerwards. Mr. Hunh A. Garland was si^lfcted by the junta here as a lit person, 
from his radicalism and activity i'n ih'^ Virginia Legislature, to do a special party service in his State; and he per- 
formed his task no donbt, so much to their satisfaction, that a special messenger w:is afterwards despatched to him, 
10 invite liiin lo come to Washington and be a candidate for the clerkship of the House--an imp>irtaiil office for a 
party who is dispnsed to abust- it. livery body knows the effi:ient part ihe Clerk took in selling aside the rpturn- 
ed members from New Jersey, at the conmien:;ement of the last session. Wiihoui ids act, (which was a daring 
and flagitious usurpation, thai had not a shadow of legal ri?ht, even in the House, much less in the Clerk, before 
the contested rases went beforp the Committee of Klection,)l>Iew Jersey could nol have been disl'ranchised, nor the 
sub-Treasiu-y bill have been pas.sed, by the mockery of an uuconsiituiiona! Congress! 



12 

already quoted, says: "The original [letter,] of which this is an extiaci, is in the hatuUvriting 
of, and signed by, Martin Van Buren." — {See Memoir, page 45.) 

It may lie interesting to some youthful readers, less informed in political biography than others, 
to say an additional word of James A. Hamilton and Rufus King. Mr. Hamilton was the son of 
Alexander Hamilton, who has ever been habitually reviled by Mr. Ritehie as a •' blue light, black 
cuckade, feJerali.sl." He was one of Mr. Van Buren's earliest politic:d associates, and continued 
to be his fast friend for years, probably without abatement ; for we find him figuring conspicuously, 
in 1828, as the agent or representative of Mr. Van Buren, while acting in the double capacity 
of a delegate of Tarnmany Hall to escort General Jackson to a festival at i\ew Orleans, and to 
make a political demonstration against Mr. Calhoun on his return to New York through the 
South. Also, during the first month or two after General Jackson's inauguration in 1829, Mr. 
Hamilton was selected as Mr. Van Buren's lociini lenens, as Secretary of State, till he could 
make preliminary preparations at Albany to resign the governorship he had held about three 
months, and repair to Washington to assume his new slaticm, at the right hand of Jackson, in 
person. But Mr. King was better known as a leading federalist, and a strenuous opposer of the 
admission of Missouri with her rights to slave property, indejiendent of the legislative instructions 
participated in by Mr. Van Buren. It also delighteth Mr. Ritchie, and all the nomenclature of 
his classical correspondents, Romans by name, to vilify every Democratic Whig who has ever 
held social or political converse with Mr. King. Nevertheless, we see it was such men of the 
Federal party (upon whom Mr. Ritchie has lavished more billingsgate than ever fishwoman 
did on her rivals in the market) that Mr. Van Buren acted witli, in opposition to the republican 
administration of Mr. Madison, until the defeat of Mr. Clinton and the re-election of Mr. Madi- 
son induced him to " change front" on the Virar of Bray jtrinciple of keeping in favor with the 
'^strongest .^ide" — a principle so dexterously practised by Mr. Ritchie before him, under the 
temptation of the "loaves and the fishes," till at length he has cornered himself by his inconsid- 
erate vow to "sink or swim" with the "Magician," being too sanguine of his magical powers 
to dupe the democracy of numbers for despotic ends. But for this vow, based probably on some 
private pledges he cannot violate io save his counlry, I must do Mr. Ritchie the justice to be- 
lieve that his disgusting vociferations in praise of the "Northern maM with Southern feelings" 
would long since have been silenced, and substituted by " wraihy invective" and "criminating 
reproaches." 

ir. Mr. Van Buren an abolHionisf iii heart — adcocated the extension of the rigid of suffrage, 
and citizenship, to free negroes in New York, whereby they are aho digihle to office,- — he 
also approves the admission of slaves to testify, in court, against white citizens. 

In the New York convention of 1821, to amend her constitution, "a proposition to restrict 
the right of voting to white citizens, was rejected by a vote of 63 to 59 — Mr. Van Buren voting 
in the inajoiity." — (See Ifulland's Life of Van Buren, page 187.) The result of this vote, and 
other passages of the amended constitution, in which Mr. Van Buren concurred, is, not only 
that persons oi color are put on a footing with white citizens of his Stale, in voting at elections, 
and entitling them to participate in instructing their Representatives in Congress, and petitioning 
that body for the abolition of slavery ; but they are rendered eligible to seats in the State Legis- 
lature and in Congress, and to appointment to office in that State — there being no disqualifica- 
tion of her voters in either respect, her voters being continually spoken of in the constitution as 
citizens, from among whom, without any express distinction or disqualification of color, such 
officers are eligible. 

On the agitation of the Missouri question in 1819'-2(t, Mr. Van Buren resorted to disingen- 
uous artifices to defeat tl;e rights of that State to her slave properl}', w ithnut conmiitting himself, 
till his jilans might arrive at maturity — which the following facts, derived from Holland's book, 
pages 144-4.5-40, plainly show, viz: A few weeks before the re-election of Kufus King to the 
United States Senate, (in Feburary, 1820,) effected mainly by the exertions of Mr. Van Buren, 
as already noticed, Mr. Van Buren authorized the use of his name " in the call i^f a public meet- 
ing of the citizens of .Albany, to express their opinions on the extension of slavery beyond the 
.Mississippi," [designed to be hostile to it of coinse.] A series of preparatory steps being l)assed 
through, a memorial to Congress was findly adojited, and Mr. Van Buren's name, as understood 
to be authorized, was affixed to it by Henry T. Jones, Esq , which Mr. Van Bnren afterwards 
disclaimed, in a letter to Mr. Jones, as transcending his authority ; which, (wi/h a little hair 
spliiting,) he said, was a " permission to use my name as a committee to call a meefing of our 
citizens to exjiress their opinion on the Missor.ri qucftion ;" and adds, "you surely cannot sup- 
pose that the use of uiy name for that [jurpose, impo.sed on me an obligation to sign whatever 
memorial might be agreed upon by the meeting." The equivocation here, is fully apparent to 
all who know the accordance of the results, with the objects, of called meetings ! Yet, shortly 
after this, Mr. King being now elected, the Legislature immediately passed a resolutio?i "in- 
structing their Senators and requesting their Representatives of the State in Congress to oppose 
the admission as a State in the Union, of any territory not comprised within the original bound- 



13 

ary ofthe UniteJ Stales, without making \hc prohibition of slavery thorein, an indispensable 
condition of admission" — "Mr. Van Buiikx votisr for thi; tiesolutiox !" 

Mr. Van Buren has also voted in the Senate of the United States to prohibit the introduction 
of slaves into Florida. And his more recent "refusal to enter into diplomatic discussion ofthe 
proposition to admit Texas into the Union," (though n favorite object of his predecessor,) " was 
doubtless to embarrass the growing influence ofthe South, and ultimately to weaken the tenure 
of their constitutional rights." 

In his letter to the Hon. Sherrod Williams, Mr. Van Buren advances the opinion, that Con- 
gress /ids a right to abolish »;lavery in the District of Coiuuibia ; but in order to make this sen- 
timent less oflensive to the South, he fabricates a "doubt whether it will be politic to do so." 

But other facts in abundance may be adduced to show the inclination of Mr. Van Buren, and 
his i)rincipal ailherents, to the abolitioii laith, and expound the menial reservations of this great 
dissemliler on that subject, among which I may cite the following, viz: When Mr. Van Buren 
was Secretary of State, his princi[>al messenger of the State Department was a fiike nei;ro, at 
a salary of ;J700 a year; a free nci^ro was, atid now continues to be, a messenger and the in- 
ternuncio to the Secretary ofthe Navy, Mr. Paulding, the friend and connexion of Mr. Ritchie, 
and a thorougli abolitionist; many free negroes are messengers in the Treasury Department, in 
the War Department, in the Post Olfice Department, and in several ofthe bureaus, at salaries 
that many respectable white citizens would be proud to accept for the like services. About the 
time of ihe Southampton insurrection in Virginia, a splendid uKfino ball was given at the 
President's Mansion, which General Jackson honored with a few moments of his jiresence, and 
was afterwards toasted by the company at their set supper. The excitement of the insurrection in 
Virginia was, in various other ways, fell in this District, as the records of the court will show, 
and one of its consequences was, an attempt '.o kill a Mrs. Thornton, by one of her slaves ; who, 
from the atrocious character ofthe assault with an axe, at the dead ofthe night, while she was 
asleep, was condenmed to be hung; but when the appointed time for his execution approached, 
it was found that he had been reprieved for a short time by the President ; the reprieve was 
again refjeated at short intervals, as if to exhaust public expectation, when at last, this midnight 
assassin was linally pardoned — and to evade public indignation, doubtless, was clandestinely 
smuggled out of the city, and sent to Florida. Upon a more recent occasion, when Congress 
began to be flooded with petitions from a distance, for the abolition of slavery in this District, a 
communication being presented to the editor ofthe Globe, by the writer of this review, discussing 
ihe inviolable right of property \n slaves, as well as lands and chattels, except when "con- 
demned to public use, for an equivalent in money," the said editor, F. P. Blair, peremptorily 
refused to give it an insertion in his paper, (it was afterwards published in the Richmond En- 
quirer,) he, the said Blair, declaring that he totally dissented from the writer, and solemnly 
averred, as his belief, " that Congress has a right to cut the throats of every man icoi/tan and 
child in the District .'" Let the reader take in connexion with this, the tact, that the leading 
doctrine ofthe locofocoes, is to tolerate no essential diH'erence of opinion, and that Mr. Blair is 
Mr. Van Buren's prime minister, or oracle of his " improved public press," and he will see that 
we have arrived at something like an expression of concurrent opinions on this subject, without 
citing, in confirmation of it, the ai)pointments of thorough abolitionists to foreign missions 
and other high trusts. I shall not conclude this catalogue, however, without mentioning Mr. 
Van Buren's approval ofthe introduction of negro testimony against a while citizen, and that, 
too, under peculiarly aggravated cirt^ii instances, 'in the case of Lieutenant George Mason Hooe, 
a native of Virginia, in the United Stales naval service. In this case the testimony of two 
negroes, the slaves of the accuser of Lieutenant Hooe, was taken, and made of record against 
the accused, before a court-martial, which resulted in the dismissal of Hooe from the naval 
service, in defiance of his remonstanccs against a procedure so revolting to the insliiutions ofthe 
South and the laws of Florida, where the trial took place ; Mr. Van Buren endorsing the same 
that he "saw nothing in those priHOcilings to disapprove.'' Yet, this is Mr. Ritchie's boasted 
"Northern man with Southern feelitigs I" according to that Jesuitical overture, indeed, by which 
Mr. Van Buren falsely professed to betray the North, to court the South ; which was at once a 
double insult both to the Soltu and to the North. 



III. Mr. Van Buren opposed the adoption of a bill of rights luith the New Yar/e constitu- 
(iuji — fie opposed the extension of the elective franchise — and he opposed the amenability of the 
higher officers of State to the ord al (f popular elections: the inconsistency of his sentiments 
on ihe veto power — his advocacy of long lenns and re-elections to the chief Executive — the in- 
consistency of his doctrines and practice respecting Ihe "spoils ofoj/ice ,•" a system of which 
he tvas the unenvitd author. 

In the New York convention of 1821, to amend her constitution, Mr. Van Buren opposed ih^ 
adoption of a Bill of Rights, in cimncxinn with ihat instrument ; nevertheless such a bill would 
have been in accordance with the practice of nearly every other Stale in the Union ; as, indeed, 
did the Virginia convention strongly recommend the adoption of u Bill of Rights for the federal 



14 

constitution, and instructed her delegation in the first Congress to procure, if possible, the adop- 
tion of a Bill of Rights drawn up by the convention. — (See the cundusion of Virginia debates, 
Elliot's edition.') Mr. Van Buren said, on the occasion above referred to, that "he was op- 
posed to a Bill of Rights, as im|)Iying some higher authority than the people." — (See Holland 
pasre 198.) This is a sophistry, in guarding the rights of the people, equivalent to taking away 
tiieir body arms to assist them in tiie right of self-defence. Every horn-book politician knows 
that a Bill of Rights is a summary of fundamental principles, by which the people, through their 
representatives in convention, endeavor to guaranty a conformity with the limitations of the 
constitutional powers to their agents in the ditferent departments of Government. — (See the de- 
bate}, for reasons why a Bill of Rights ivris not adopted ivith the federal constitution.) 

In the same (N. Y.) convention, Mr. Van Buren denounced the principle of universal suf- 
frage as follows: "Upon the proposition to extend the right of suffrage, Mr. Van Buren ex- 
pressed his fears that the extension contemplated by some of the amendments proposed would 
not be sanctioned by public approbation, and only occasion the rejection of the whole by the 
people; [the people are always thrust forward as the sponsors for his opinions;] that were the 
bare, naked question of universal suffrage put to the ciimmittee, he did not believe there were 
twenty memliers who would vote for it." "His chief fear seems to have been, that the great 
departure from the i'ormer freehold qualification would hazard the adoption of the whole amend- 
ment." — (See Holland, pp. 181, 185.) Right or wrong, this! it is palpably contradictory to 
some of those vaunted democratic principles he pretends, in his messages to Congress, to pro- 
fess, one of which is that "the only legitimate object of Government is to secure the greatest 
benefit to the greatest nuaiber" — a dogma, nevertheless, more plausible than correct, as it is 
liable to involve injustice, oppression, and danger to trie rights of property, the validity of con- 
tracts, and other ve>ted rights of the minority, if the "greatest number" should possess but little 
property, and be taught by the same party artifices to believe and to will it to be for their good 
fo establish an agrarian laiv. But to flatter all persons of small property, and newly imported 
foreigners, with this delusion, seems now to be the principal dependence of this great leader of 
party, as is further evinced by the efforts ol his partisans of the Senate in repeated instances, 
and more particularly in their late attempt to establish universal suffrage in the corjioration of 
Washington, for the gratification of temporary laborers on the public buildings to control the 
permanent citizens in the management of their corporate concerns. — (Sec Mr. Senator Nor- 
vell's report of a bill for altering (he charter cf the city.) 

Mr. Van Buren also opposed the amenability of the higher officers of State to the ordeal of 
popular elections. Holland, page I'JO, quoting from a speech of Mr. Van Buren, (as in most 
other cases of his opinions here cited from his biographer,) says: "He concurred in the opinion 
which had been expressed as to the impropriety of f.li;cti>'g the higher officers of State, be- 
tAUSK THEIR DUTIES WEiiE i^iPoiiTANT; and it w.as to befea}-ed that it would have a tendency 
to render their judgment subservient to their f/fs/re.^ for a continuance rx office." The 
public have been sutiicicntly informed of similar sentiments expressed in former times by Mr. 
Buchanan, Mr. Grundy, and other advocates of Mr. Van Buren, and we all know what are his 
professions and theirs to wheedle the people now. 

Mr. Van Buren was a strenuous advocate, in the New York Convention, for conferring the 
veto power on the Governor over the acts of the Legislature, by which he might annul every act 
that is not passed by two-thirds of their number. He urged in favor of it that "The superior 
force and influence of legislative power would secure it against abuse;" that " no man would 
have the temerity, on ordinary occasions, to resist its acts, or check its proceedings;" and he 
referred to the English Constitution, where "the Executive is a branch of the Legislature, and 
has an absolute negative." Yet, "surrounded as he is with prerogative," said Mr. Van Buren, 
"and placed beyond the reach of the people, since the year 1692 ;jo olijeclion has bee?! made by 
a King of Great Britain to any hill presented for his approbation I Rather than produce the 
fixcitcineiit and irritation which even there would result from the rejection of a bill passed by the 
Parliament, he has resorted to means, which have degraded the Government and dishonored the 
nation, to prevent the passage of bills which he should feel it his duty to reject.'' — (<S'ee Hol- 
land, page 163.) Are we left to conjecture from this whether .Mr. Van Buren's more recent 
declaration, in advance, that he would veto a certain bill, be an instance of his "degradation of 
the Government and dishonor of the nation," by resorting to such means to prevent the passage 
of s.iid bill, to relieve himself of the exciting consequences of its veto ! or, is his premonition to 
Conerc'ss an evidence of the unceremonious levity with which he now views the superior force 
ami influence (the sanctity) of legislative power? And yet, such an advocate as he for the 
" Executive veto," to check the "legislative power," State and federal, did afterwards, in a 
speech in the Senate of the United States, manifest a holy horror at his own forced construction 
of a veto power of the Sujireme Court over all the legislative acts of the several States, and of 
Congress, under the mere limited right to judge of their constitutionality ! It will be perceived, 
hy the following extracts, that Mr. Van Buren's insidious attempts to prejudice Congress and 
the several States against the Supreme Court was as artful in design as it was frivolous in its 
grounds of attack. On the 7th April, 1826, addressing the Senate, he said : 



15 

'• II has been jusily dbserveJ, llial there exists not upon tliis earth, ami there never did exist, a judicial tribunal 
clothed with powers so various and important as tlie SujTemn Court. 

" By it, treaties and laws, made pursuant to the ronstiimion, are declared to be the supreme law of the land. 
So fai, at least, as tlie acts ol' L\>ngr(ss depend upon the courts for ilu ir execuiiun, the Suprtniu Court is the judge, 
whether or no such acts are pursuant to the constitution, and from its judgment there is noai'peal. Its veto, 
therefore, may absolutely suspend nine-tenths of the acts of the national Lesislature !" [Why did not !\lr. A'an 
Buren say the wlmle, for tliey could suspeiul ihn whole, as w( U as one, if they sliould all be unconstitutional. Bui 
ihe guarantee asainst such an exercise of their judicial function, resides in the good sense of Ci'nercss to avoid, 
except by casual defect of judsmeut, such disastrous legislation— saving always, the recent parly leaislaiion of the 
supporters of Mr. Van Buren Thimself. and under his prompting, who set themselves aliove the constiluilon.] 

" But," says, he, " this is not all. It not only sits in final juckmenl upon our acts, as the hishesl legislative body 
known to the country— it not only claims to be the ah>soluie arbiter between the Federal and Stale Governments — 
hut il exercises tlie same great power between the respective Slates f rming this great confederacy and their own 
citizens. Bv the constitution of the United Stales, the .Stales are pn hilited froin passins any law impairint: the 
obligation 0^ contracis." "This brief provision has given lo the junsdiclion of the- Supienie'Court a irenieiidous 
sweep ! !" " But of this highly ronsequeniial provision, this provision which carries so great a portion of all that is 
valuable in Slate legislation to the lei't of the federal judiciary, no complaints were heard, no explanation asked, 
no remonstrances made,'' [by those who opposed the ratification of the consliiution.] "It is most mysterious, if the 
constiiuiion was then understood as il now is, that this was so. An explanation of il has been given, how correct 
I know not." * * * 

"But whatever the motive lliat led to its insertion, or the cause that induced so little observation on ilslendency, 
the fact of ils extensive operation is known and acknowledged. The prohibition is not confined to express con- 
tracts, but includes such as are implied by law, from the nauire of the transaction." [What well balanced mind 
would say it should be otherwise i] " Any one (adds he) conversant with the usual range uf Slate leaislatiim, will 
at once see how small a pjriion of it is exempt, under this provision, from the supervision of the seven judges of 
the Supreme Court. The practice under il has been in accordance with what shi'Uld have been anticipated ! 

" There arc f w Stales in the Union [for this was his drift from the first] upon whose acis (says he) the seal of 
condemnation has not, from time to time, been placed by the Supreme Courl. 'Ihe sovereign authorities of Ver- 
mont, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey [!] Pennsylvania, IMaryland, Virginia, Norili Carolina, Missouri, 
Kentucky, and (jhio, have, in turn, been rebuked and silenced, Ijy the overruling authority of this court." How- 
ever, says he, " The authority has been given to them, and this is not the place to quesiion its exercise. But this 
I will say, that if the question of confeiTing it was now presented for the first tune. I should unhesitatingly say, 
that the people of the States might, with safety, be left to their own Legislatures, and the protection of their own 
courts." 

Is there no appeal from these malignant strictures of Mr. Van Buren ! Is there no consola- 
tion iu the opinions of inlinitely wiser judges than he 1 If il he not fair to infer that the acqui- 
escence of those great States, whose grievances he so officiously recounts, is prtmf iif their sanc- 
tion of the correct Judgment of the court, I would recommend the reader to turn to the al)ie 
s|)ecch of John Marshall on tlie federal judiciary, delivered in the Virginia Convention, hv which 
similar vagaries to those of Mr. Van Uuren were fully controverted, while the merits of our sys- 
tem of Government were under consideration. That able speech, indeed, was an earnest, at the 
time, of the masterly powers of inind with which the same individual was destined afterwards to 
preside over the Supreme Court. 

•Mr. Van Buren also advocated the longest term for the Governor, and his eligibility to re-elec- 
tion, as essential, both, to test the good or evil of his measures, and the approval or censure of 
the PKopLE. He said, {see Holland, p. 166.) 

" He had not experienced the evils of triennial elections ; but as we had vastly incre.-sed the power of the Gov- 
ernor [by vesting hiui with ' a veto upon all laws, so far as to make their re-enactment by two-thirds of both Houses 
necessiry to Ilu ir pufsase against his consent'] a strong desire is manifested to abridge his term ;" in which senti- 
ment he concurred. " But how abridge it !" (said he.) " We wish the people to have an onpeiitunity of lesline their 
Governor's conduct, not by the feelings of temporary excitemeiu, but by that sober SECOND THOUHCT which 
IS NEVER WRONG. Can that be etl'ected if you abridge the term to one year ! No, sir ! it is necessary that his pow- 
er exist long enough to survive that temporary excitement which a uieasure of public importance must occasion, 
and to enable the people to dpt"ct the fallacy with which the acts of Gewernment [or their own judgment, he rather 
means] may be veiled as to their real motives. Can a fair judgment of motives or the effects oi' measures be made 
in a few months'! No, sir! Even a term loneer than three years must sometimes be necessary to enable us to 
juilge of the eftects of measures !' " 

Truly, it took just three years, short by a fraction, for the seizure of the public Treasury, and 
thp diversion of it from its customary use, under the regulations of law, to prostrate commerce 
and the general prosperity of the country ; but it may take a much shorter term, under a contin- 
uance of Mr. Van Buren's Administration, with the Treasury and a standing army at his coni- 
inand, to drench the country in blood, and accompli.~h its entire subjugation to his despotic rule. 

As long ago as 1813, when he had lurned coat, and brcoir.e an advocate of "sirong war meas- 
ures," speaking in a public address on the re-election of Governor Tompkins, he denounced the 
detestable practice of the IJriti.^h in impressing .-Vmfiican seamen into their service, in very hand- 
sovi}c terms. He said it is "a practice which can never be acquiesced in by CJovernment, with- 
out rescinding the great article of our safety, Ihe recipritcily r>/'o)iKi)iExcF. and piior kctioy ie- 
tween the rulers and the ruled.'"' But now, when the jjeojile ctmiplain that their business is 
ruined by the oppressive measures of the Government, and jiray fur relief, he answers "that 
the people expect too much fr-^m the Government;" "that the Government will take care of it- 
self, and the people must lake care of themselves;" but it b(gins to be obvious that the gold and 
silver currency lortiie olHce-holders, and depreciated sliin-plastrrs for the people, in lieu of our 
once uniform currency, is one of the thousand evils of his measures, which llu; .vo6er sKcoini 
■taoVGnT^ of the people vj'iW teach him at the polls in .'Vdviiubcr, tiikv mkan no i,ox<,kii -jo 

ENDUHE ! 

In the same address, (.fee Holland, p. 101,) Mr. Van Buren, then worniinghxA way to office, 
deprecated, like Gen. Jackson, what he called " the distressing truth that it was not in the pow- 



16 

er of circumstances to destroy the virulence of party spirit." Now, when he has attained the 
highest coinrnnnd, true to the example of his illustiious predecessor, (whose conversion to the 
spoils system was his handi\< orl<,) he has, hiie him, in order to retain power, become one of the 
most active partisans (as the author and patron of that detestable monarchical system) in fanning 
the llames of " pautt spiuit." 

In the New York Convention, {see Holland p. 198,) Mr. Van Buren said "that while he 
avowed the principle that the dominant party should always posskss and exebcise the of- 
ficial patronage, yet he maintained due regard ix its distkibutiox should constantly be had 
for the rights of the minority. ^^ Now, if this be not an entirely incompatible sophistry, coined 
to please one party and conciliate the other, (for it is incomprehensible to me how he could give 
the exclusive official patronage to the dominant party, and yet, in its distribution, have constant 
regard to the rights of the minority, who were to have 7iolhing, unless, in his view, justice to 
them consisted in not depriving them of their civil as well as political rights ;) yet I should say, 
it aflords a loop hole through which to catch a glimpse of the "spoils doctrine"' of the Albany 
Regency, whin in its germ, however wonderfully it has been changed in its rugged aspect, un- 
der the revision and emendations of its author, iiy transplanting it to Washington, and engraft- 
ing thorny scions u[)-jn it, from the time he began in the Senate to modify and give direction to 
the patronage of the Federal Government. We all know something of the enormous growth and 
corrupt exercise of that patronage since, for the benefit of tlie "dominant party," and in venge- 
ance against the riglits of the minority, which has nearly shook the MoniL, heligious, 

AXD POLITICAl INSTITUTIONS OF THE COUNTRY TO THEIlt FOUNDATIONS. 



SECOND PERIOD. 



" His loriK stuJy of the human heart, [.sPEAKrNO of Mr. V. B. when he entered the Senate,] his great ex- 
perience in political viatters, and his pre-eminent ^ood sense, Iiad given him a power of interpreting llie popular 
will, and uniting, harmonizing, and directing ihej'eelings of those n-ith whom he acted, which pew men ever 
ATTAIN to." IHolhmd's Life and Political Opinions of Martin Van Buren, page 208. 



I. iWr. Van Buren, unifurmly, for a series of years, has been an advocate for a tariff or im- 
posts fir theprotectio?! of manufactures — His subseejuent repudiation of his first love, as an 
tvirture to the South — His support aud denu7iciation of internal improvement, still more di- 
versified and inconsistent — His claim of initiative legislation, alone, brings the money power 
very much within his grasp. 

When our partisan biographer, Mr. Holland, comes, in his eleventh chapter, to treat of " Mr. 
Van Buren's course in the Senate," he takes occasion to distinguish him with very high-sound- 
ing and laudatory compliments, to the great disparagement of the rest of the Senate. Without 
quoting those tulsonie passages in detail, I will concede all that is meant to be assumed for Mr. 
Van Buren by his kind historian, viz : that he united, harmonized, and directkd his political 
asssociatcs with whom he acted in the Senate, as alleged in the passage quoted above as an appro- 
priate heading for this period of his career, particularly as his biographer seems much enamored 
with it, desirous to make deep impression of its truth, from his frequent repetition of it in differ- 
ent parts of his book. It will, therefore, be perfectly fair to hold this boasted party manager re- 
sponsible for that ^' direction^' which he gave to those with whom he "acted" in the Senate, 
in certain important doings of theirs, as well as what he enacted on his own hook, during that 
important period, which his biographer fi)und it convenient to say nothing about, touching his 
overtures to the South ; though he professes that " nothing has been intentionally omitted, glossed 
over, or unfairly represented" — an expression which he also takes pains to reiterate in sundry 
other places in his hook, protesting that he " has made strenuous endeavors not to conceal or 
mit>represent" any material fact or opinion. After adding a further eulogy in disparaging the 
rest of the Senate, saying that, "to furnish a complete view of Mr. V. B.'s services in the Sen- 
ate of the United States, during the seven years he was a member, (from 1821 to 1829,) would 
be to transcritie a large p()rtion of its proceedings," he goes on to give a meagre summary of 
his acts and doings on most of the prominent subjects of legislation of that period, with an omis- 
sion, nevertheless, of the princi[ial features of some of them, which I will supply from other au- 
thority. He also distorts some of those transactions, and glosses them over, as we have seen he 
did, ill many instances, in the preceding period, before he came to the Senate. I shall take the 
liberty of correcting these, as I have dune those. 

The Federal Government and the State Governments, taken together, constitute the elements 
of a whole and /)«/fc/ sovereignty. The States, individually, are imperfect sovereignties, so 
fur as the powers delegated to the Federal Government abate or curtail their former complete sov- 
ereignty. The .Federal Government is also an imperfect sovereignty, so far as the powers not 



17 

delegated to it, but reserved to the States respcctivtly, are wantiiiir to make that sovereignty com- 
plete. The sovereignty of the Federal Government is complete in all things that appertain to 
foreign relations, and to the internal commerce bttwecn the States. There are many minor siih- 
jects of legislation on internal police, not connected in any manner with foreign relations, or with 
the relations between States, between States and citizens of States, and between citizens of dif- 
ferent States, which come within the sphere o{ joint, ivferfering, or participaliiii^ sovereignties 
of the Federal and the State Governments. And I doubt whether there be any sulijcct of legis- 
lation in which a Slate has exclusive sovereignty, in regard to the United States authority, inas- 
much as the whole range of State legislation is subject to the supervision of the Federal Govern- 
ment, through the Supreme Court, so far as any infraction of any of the delegated powers of the 
federal constilution may he involved in such legislation. These ge eral hints arc thrown out 
here, to hring the contemplative mind to some focal points involved in the sequel. And, for the 
same purpose, it may be well to bear in mind that liie federal constitution consists of three i)rin- 
cipal AiiTicLKs, besides several others that are mi.-icellaneous. The fird relntes to the Lesisla- 
ture; the seamd relates to the Executive; and the third in the Judiciary — each comprisinsr "mat- 
ters more or less enhancing or restricting the powers and duties of the others In the eighth sec- 
tion of the first auticlk, the specific powers delegated to the legislature are enumerated in 
eighfeen'diiusies, of which I copy the three first and the eighteenth, viz: 

" The Conarf^ss shall have pnwer — 

" 1. Til lay anil cullect taxes, iluiies, imposts, [vulgarly called lariff] and excises, to pay the delns aiul prnviilf f^r 
Ihe coninioii defence and eeiieral welfare of ihe United Slates ; bin all dulies, iinijosis, and excises shall be unif.irni 
thriiiighoiil the United Stales. 

"2. To borrow lnoll^y on ihe crodlt of the United Slatrs. 

"3.^ Th reuulale commerce vviih foreisn nations, and among the several SlalPs, and with the Indian tribes." 

"IS. To make all laws whi h shall be npces.sary and proper fur carrying into pxpculion the f.iresoing powers 
and all other powers vested by this constitution in ihe Governnienl of Ihe'United Stales, or in any deimnment or 
otficer thereof." 

Under tliis eighteenth clause, the render perceives that Congress has the power, as efTertually 
granted, though not by name, lu make whatever laws it .-^hall deem necessary and proper to ex- 
ecute any other power, as that power itself was conferred ; and that any measure, (or that pur- 
pose, which one Congress may deem necexs/iry and propfr to-day, may at another lime under 
change of circu(ustarices, bf deemed unnecessary or inexpedietit to the end desired. 

From the earliest ntoments of legislation under the constitution to the present day, Congress 
has found it "necessary and proper," by the concurrent votes of all parties, in order to "regu- 
late cammerce" and "to provide for the common defence and general welfare," not only to hty 
impo.><ts (or tarill) /w revenue, but to protect the manufactures that might minister to the " com- 
mon defence and general prosperity ;" and not only to protect such manufacture.', hut to construct 
forts, arsenals, military Ways, and whatever else they might deem necessary to the "common 
defence," &c.; also such harbors, canals, roads, &c., as Congress may deem necessary and proper 
for the general commerce, or commerce between (he States, &c., paying due deference as a 
matter of expediency and decorum, to the wishes of the States most imu)edi.itely concerned • so 
that the dilliculty consists not so much in the right to act as the discretion in acting. Whether 
politicians may, tu-dafj, admit these plain truths, and to-morrnw deny them, and still rlaini 
credit for consistency, is another matter. For a masterly exposition of this whole subject in all 
its bearmcs, I would refer the reader to the refutaiion of the " views" of the Rii limond Enquirer 
by the Editors of Ihe National Intelligencer, in a .series of essays through the months of June 
July, and August. 

(Ju the subject of the tatuff, as long ago as the 30th January, 1817, resolutions were adopt- 
ed in the New York Legislature, mninly by the influence of Mr. Van Buren, and " the domi- 
nant parly" to which he was attached, "instructing their Senators and requesting their Repre- 
sentatives in Congress, to use their influence to obtain efficient pnileeiiitn for the infant nianu- 
fucture/i of the United States," &c. And by these resolutions Mr. Van Buren and his friends 
laid the foiinilalion of that very tarifl' of which his present Southein supjiorters have ever since 
complained. — {See New Yurk Senate Journal, pages ^>'i, 78, as quoted bij the New York 
Times; Ijiit tntirebj omitted tiy Holland.) 

He voted in the Senate of the Uuiied States for the tariff of 1824, without hesitation, scruple 
or instructions. (This is admitted, but ghissed over Ity Holland, page 27.').) 

On tiie 'if>\h February, 18:^7, he voted in the Senate of the United Slates against reducing the 
tax on salt; wliii h, in the opinion of the salt cham|)ion of Missouri, is the most objeciionable 
item of a high tarilf. — (See Senate Journal 1827; but. omitted Ijy Holl/rnd.) 

At the same session, however, Mr. Van Buren began to quail on the general tariff, as we 
learn from Holland, (page 27.'\) who says: " At a public meeting held in All)iiny on the lllth 
July, '827, Mr. Van Buren delivered a speech of consiilerable length and great ing/ntiiti/," in 
which he examined "the tarilf bill, which jias.'ced the House of Ivejire.sentatives in 1827, but was 
laid on the table in the Senate — he concurring of conr.-e. In the course of his speech (says he) 
Mr. Van Buren intimates bis serious fears, that the friends of protective duties were urging 
tiieir ineasurs with too mucli eagerness. He also cautions manufaciuheus against uniting their 
fortunes with a.ny political adventurer ;" a home hit, this, ttiat will tell at the rebound of the 
2 



1« 

sober sT.cosT) thovohts of the people in November next. This was his "sheep speech," so 
famous for favoring contradictory opinions. 

In the Spring of the same year, 1827, when Mr. Van Buren, accompanied by Mr. Cambrel- 
eng, was making a tour through the South, on an affected pilgrimage to Mr. Crawford, but in 
fact with sundry political speculations in view, such as ascertaining, by authority, from Mr. 
Crawford, the enemy of Mr. Calhoun, something which might at a future time be used to sup- 
plant Mr. Calhoun in the affections of General Jackson, and at the same time to make such 
overtures to the South, as might serve his own turn, in case General Jackson should not be taken 
up by the South to supersede Mr. Adams, hk did, in replies to invitations to public entertain- 
ments, resort to similar misgivings with those above referred to ; and, particularly, in his answer 
to an invitation by the citizens of Raleigh, he denounced those acts of federal legislation, upon 
what he called constructive rights, meaning the tariff and internal improvements, which had 
been frequently and earnestly advocated by both himself and his travelling companion Mr. Cam- 
breleng. Seizing the opportunity of railing at the administration for. what he had so frequently 
aided in doing, as national measures, he said : 

" All (lisfiassioiiiitP observers will atlmit that the mpasures (of the administration) to which you allude, justify the 
alarm you exprpss. The spirit of encroachment has assumed a new and far more seductive aspect, and can only be 
resisted by the exercise of uncommon virtue." 

That this offering to the South, was propitious, is apparent from the Columbian Telescope, 
of South Carolina, proclaiming at the time, that " Mr. Van Buren is not unlikely to succeetl 
General Jackson, if he keeps steadily to \\is present plan 1^' {See the Political Mirror, pages 
41, 42 ; and chapter " how io dispose of a rival," page 124.) These important passages in 
Mr Van Bureii's magical life, are not even alluded to by his biographer, Holland. 

But Mr. Van Buren rallied again, in the next twelve months, and "voted for the tariff 
OF 1828," which provoked the most serious commotion that ever threatened the peace and in- 
tegrity of the Union, in the South, headed by Mr. Calhoun and his nullifying friends. This is 
admitted by Holland (page 298) to be true, notwithstanding the speech of 1827, above quoted. 

Mr, \'an Buren was also the coadjutor and adviser of the author of the proclamation and the 
force bill, the natural offsprings of the above tariff. He was Vice President, resident at Wash- 
ington, at the time those exciting measures took place ; Mr. Livingston, the author of them, 
and a native of New York, having been appointed Secretary of State by the recommendation of 
Mr. Van Buren, at the dissolution of the cabinet in 1831, those measures must have been sub- 
mitted to his advisement, and received his entire approbation, upon every principle of reciprocal 
praises and obligations between him and General Jackson — though the objectionable parts of the 
proclamation were afterwards explained away by General Jackson, at the instance of his political 
high priest and confessor at Richmond, doubtless, also, vi'ith the approbation of Mr. Van Buren, 
in order to conciliate Mr. Ritchie and the South. 

With regard to internal impuotkmf.nts, (the handmaid of the protective tariff', so far as 
the one encourages the home production of the muniments of war, &c., and the other aft'ords the 
facilities (jf making them efficient, transporting them from place to place, &c., not otherwise 
sufficiently provided,) we have already seen that Mr. Van Buren was for a long time opposed 
to Clinton's plan of Slate improvements; we shall now see how he vacillated on this subject in 
re-rard to ihe policy and powers of the Federal Government. 

In the Senate of the United States, in may 1822, he voted for the preservation and repairs of 
the Cumberland road, and for establishing United States' toll-gates on that road, in the States 
through which it passes ; with other such latitudinous provisions, that caused Mr. Monroe to 
veto the bill. (This is iridirecfti/ acknowledged by Holland, page 271.) 

In 1823, Mr. Van Buren voted, in the Senate, for provisions similar to the above, in 
relation to the preservation, repairs, and continuance of the Cumberland road. This and 
the preceding facts are indirectly acknowledged, and more than half stippressed by Holland. 
The only notice lie takes of these votes i.s, in an extract from a speech of Mr. Van Buren 
on Foote'rt resolution, several years thereafter, in which he adverts to iris votes on the Cum- 
berland road, and says, " it is by no means certain that, in this respect, he himself has been 
altogether without fault." Certain circumstances "had induced him, without fall examination, 
to vote for a provision authorizing the collection of toll on this road. 'J'he affair (says he) of 
the Cumberland road, in respof^t to its reference to the constitutional powers of this Government, 
i.s matter entirely sui generis!" A case, sui generis, in regard to its constitutionality! ! I 
will venture to opine, without any iiazarJ pf mistake, that there is not another man, B. F. Butler 
excepted, the compeer of Mr. Van Buren, into whose mind the conception ever could have en- 
tered to fabricate sucli an unique prevarication and false pretence, to excuse an act whicii, had 
it not been his own, he would have pronounced, according to his then existing political vue, to 
be unconstitutional. To start a doctrine that any case whatever can come up in the whole 
range of legislation, that can entirely evade the question of constitutional power over it, on ac- 
count of any peculiarity tliat may be set up for it, is so absurd and unstatesmanly, that the pre- 
sumption with which it is advanced can only be accounted for in this instance by the long prac- 
tice and unparalleled success of .Mr. Van Buren in the arts of deception and counterfeiting the 



vi9 

similitude of truth. My reason for making th<' above exception in belialf of Mr. Butler is, be- 
cause that gentleman has demoii.'Jtrated hi.'; tiict in tlie same sort of literary anomaly while he was 
Attorney General — though I presume he had acquired "some (more) acquaintance with Latin" 
than Mr. Van Buren had. In the fall of 183C, when the Secretaryship of War was about to 
be vacated by Mr. Secretary Cass acce}>ting the embassy to France, Mr. Butler desired the situ- 
ation and salary without vacating that of Attorney (ieneral, notwithstanding the incompatibil- 
ity of the relation he wouhl then stand in, as legal advis-er (in quality of Attorney Gcncrnl) to 
himself, (in quality of Secretary of War,) — for this would lie an advantage to him in all his 
official perplexities as Secretary of War, as he would be sure, upon consultation, to have the 
opinion of the law officer on his side ; and, if the question should be raised as to his right to 
hold two offices, or to draw two salaries, under the constitution and the law, his opinion, in the 
capacity of Attorney General, might be decisive with the Secretary of the Treasury — particular- 
ly if he could do away a palpable solecism by legal logic, or the hocus pocus of his legal reputation, 
and make it appear that his second office was no office, but a nondescript sui generis case of ser- 
vice, and that he was entitled to the exact equivalent of the salary, for extra services, (the stand- 
ing sui generis for all impostures of the kind.) Accordingly, he did arrange the thing exactly 
in the exquisite Van Buren style of legal quibble, and succeeded in befooling General Jackson 
and the Secretary of the Treasury, secundum artem. He styled himself " Secretary of War, 
ac? («/f»'/w," and so signed his name to all official papers while he was acting in this double 
capacity, about a year, cheating the country, and giving a shock to the common sense of every 
man who cast his eyes on so novel a title, uidtnown to the laws or the constitution. 

" On the 22d January, 1824, Mr. Van Buren called the attention of the Senate to the alarm- 
ing assumption of power by the General Government, in regard to ' internal imjirovements.' " — 
{See Holland, page 267.) "On the 19th of December, 1825, he again brought forward the 
same subject, and offered two resolutions, one of which declared ' that Congress does not pos- 
sess the power to make roads and canals within the respective States.' " {See ditto.) " On the 
21st April (same year) he opposed the appropriation for the Louisville canal." {Ditto, page 
269.) And, on the 1 5th May following, he opposed the proposition to subscribe, on the part 
of the United States, to the Dismal Swamp Canal, connecting the navigable waters of Virginia 
and North Carolina. On the last but one of these occasions, Mr. Van Buren said: 

" The aid of ihis Govrrnmeni can only be affirdeil to these objecls uf improvement, in three ways : by making 
a road or canal and assuming jurisdiction ; by making a road or "canal with- ut assuming jurisdiction, leaving it to 
the States ; or by making an appropriation without doing either. In his opinion, the General Government had no 
right to do either."' 

The reader has now before him two remarkable instances of Mr. Van Buren's oscillations from 
the extremest constitutional constructiveness, without the posssiitility of his having entertained a 
sincere belief in the "necessity" or propriety of collecting tolls by the United States on the 
(Cumberland road, to the extremest respectiveness to the letter of the constitution, equally im- 
probable of belief to justify him, in denying the power of the General Government to aid a State 
improvement by apjiropriation or loan. Mr. Van Buren, who commenced the study of law at 
fourteen, after a lapse of about thirty years' devotion to nothing else but law and politics, was 
"yet so ignorant of the constitution in 1822, as to believe that the United States had constitutional 
power to CONSTRUCT a. road, {sui generis, be it remembered) assume jurisdiction, and col- 
lect tolls, within the States ! ! But as soon as he finds h politic to make overtures to the 
South, and take lectures from professor Ritchie on his beau ideal of & " Northern man with 
Southern feelings," he is ready to take his diploma upon such restrictive construction (being no 
construction at all) as would render nearly the whole code of our laws unconstitutional, because 
they are not in accordance with its letter ! ! an absurdity, which needs only to be stated, to 
be fully appreciated, thus, viz : that if every law must conform to the letter of the constitution, 
that is, have a ///era/ provision for it in the instrument, it would require that the constitution 
should anticipate and embrace, in advance, the whole legal code; and that whatever law be not 
therein literally embraced, shall be considered unconstitutional, which is absurd. It results, 
then, from this argumentum ad absurdum, that the "necessarily" implied powers are infin- 
itely more numerous than those powers expressly enumerated ; as each of these must carry with 
it a train of correlative powers that may be deemed by Congress "necessary and proper" from 
time to time, to carry it into execution. 

So that, while I must agree that, according to the example of most of our illustrious statesmen 
before he began to strut his lirief hour on the stage, his advocacy of protective imposts and internal 
improvements would have constituted some claim for Mr. Van Buren's taking rank in that galaxy of 
brilliant names, I must be permitted, nevertheless, to say, that all his seeming merit therein, has 
proved to be nothing but the frothy declamation of a poUtical speculator, from the time he trafficked 
away his consistency, by time serving overtures to Mr. Ritchie for " Southern influence, to pro- 
mote his ambition." Mr. Ritchie well knows that Mr. Jefferson was not only an advocate of a 
tariff or imposts for the protection and encouragement of " our infant manufactures, suited to our 
circumstances," but of internal improvements, by the Federal Government applying any surplus 
of revenue from imposts, to the construction of roads, canals, &c., as expressed in many of his 



20 

messages lo Congress, down to his very last annual. Such, also, does he know were the senti- 
ments of Mr. Madison, Mr. Monroe, and even of General Jackson, [with the exception of some 
■unintelligible distinctions and inconsistences in the latter part of his administration, which he 
must have derived from Mr. Van Buren, through the promptings of his preceptor alKichmond.] 
Yet Mr. Ritchie has pertinaciously striven, against public opinion and the established policy of 
the nation from its hirth, to establish a Tom Ritchik school of politics rhrimincing all impli- 
ed powers, for the adoption of Virainia and the whole South, which has had a greater tendency to 
undermine the Union, than Mr. Calhoun's mad career and all his nullifying friends put together, 
inasmuch as his is but an infection from the 'J'om Ritchie mania. But it would be rational to 
suppose that Mr. Van Burcn's former zeulior a " jirotective tariii"' and "internal improve- 
ments" would have been sufficient to have excluded him from the Tuin Ritchie school, if Mr. 
Eitchie were the man whose political consistency, propriety, directness and good faith, on other 
occasions, would entitle him to be counted upon. Not so, however; for it has been a favorite arti- 
fice of Mr. Ritchie to lay low, and await the signs of the popular current, and in the mean time, to 
coax eminent men to modify, explain away, and annul their former opinions, so as to enable 
him to claim them to be of his way of thinking on the favorite doctrine of his school, for which 
he barters his pretended influence over Virginia politics, which is sure to seem considerable when 
the ebb makes in his direction. The recent case in which Mr. Ritchie has seduced Mr. Poinsett 
and Mr. Van Buren seriously to implicate their own veracity before the American people on the 
subject of the standing army of 200,000 men attempted by them lo be imposed upon the coun- 
try under the disguise of a militia regulation, is yet perhaps the most remarkable instance of this 
sort of political |)rostitution in the Tom Ritchie calendar. 

liCt no one suppose that I have charged this billing and cooing, this traflicking between Mr. 
Ritchie and Mr. Van Buren, unadvisedly. Without going into the details of the political inter- 
course that commenced between them, on Mr. V. B.'s visit to the South in 1827, which has 
probably been unremitting ever since, embracing sundry other personal visits of Mr. V. B. to 
Mr. Ritchie during the Virginia convention in 1830, and since he has been President, with the 
long visit of Mr. Ritchie at Washington during his inauguration, I will content myself by put- 
ting together a few facts that have already been made public, independent of what I am confident 
could be proved, by a committee of investigation authorized to send for persons and papers, 
showing the corrupt and clandestine influences used to swerve the President from the settled 
policy of the country, and particularly that the declaration of Mr. V. B.'s biographer is as true in 
this, as in other cases, viz: that "he unites, harmonizes, and directs, all with whom he acts," See. 

Holland, speaking on the subject of internal improvements, ^. 271, says: " The course of 
General Jackson's administration has done much to throw light upon this subject, especially his 
famous veto message upon the .Maysville road bill. Mr. Van Buren was then a member of his 
cabinet, and, to use his own language, ' gave to the measure of which that document was an 
exposition, his active, zealous, and anxious support." He then quotes from an electioneer- 
ing letter of Mr. Van Buren, addressed to a committee at Shocco Springs, N. C. in October 
1832, while he was candidate for the Vice Presidencj', and afterwards remarks upon them thus : 
"These extracts, it will be noticed, go farther than the I'eto message upon the Maysville road 
bill, and assume the ground aftehavakds adopted by the President, that f.vkn for purposes 
WHICH might he dekmed of a natioxal character, 710 appropriaticns ovght to he made 
without a previous amendment of the confititution .' .' ' I ask, is it not now palpable, from 
this gradual progress of Mr. Van Buren from the extreme doctrine of "collecting tolls on the 
Cumberland road," to the opposite extreme of demanding "an amendment of the constitution 
to authorize an appropriation for avowed national objects," (the identical doctrine of the Tom 
Ritchie school,) and the consequent, progressive, corresponding changes in General Jackson's 
views of that subject, and of his "reasonable tariff," that there existed a corrupt coalition for 
political effect agaiust the known will of the country, by which the Tom Ritchie doctrine was 
to find favor and support in Mr. Van Buren, and then, through his "clandestine influence over 
General Jackson," was to become the court doctrine of his administration ? 

But lest these should be deemed insufiicient to satisfy those whose affections, or rather delu- 
sions, are so strong that they do not wish to be undeceived, I will quote an extract from the 
Richmond Enquirer of 2.'5th June, 1830, which if it does not show under whose influence the 
J'resident vetoed the May.^ville road bill, it affords further j)roof at least, of that pervasive influ- 
ence bj' which Mr. Van Buren " unites, harmonizes, and directs, all with whom be acts" — as 
the letter was written by one of his most zealous political friends, and perhaps one of the most 
effective in procuring the success of his recent elevations to the highest offices of the country. 
The letter was (from Washington,) dated 18th June, 1830 — 

" The opposition, when Itie Prosiilent put his veto upon tlie Maysville road bill, caUuilaled with great cprtainty 
that Pennsvlvania (in sportsman's phrase) would bolt. Indeed, some of our own friends gave evident symptoms of 
alarm, and' thought all was lost. H<iwever, the thing has gone forth, in as hideous a dress, loo, as the opposition 
press could characterize it, withal ; and, lo their astonishment, thai State slill stands firm, and has not yet shot 
niadlv from her .sphere. She still holds the front rank, anil is No. 1 . We have been most agreeably disappointed. 
The democracy of that democratic Stale, have taken a correct view of the subject of internal improvements, and 
will firiyly ausiain the President in the course he has taken. I have lately received several letters from gentlemen 
living in thai Slate which evince a degree of unanimity, not to have been expected by the most sanguine of our 



21 

friPiiils," A,r. iic. •■ I liavp iin fpars ol IVnnsylvniiia. [ Tievpr ain IipUpvp, vvliaipvpr iiviy \>p lipr niiiiiioii!! as 
respects ilie consliuiiioiwUiy nf ilie ((upslioii, lluil slie will consent lo lie taxed to iniike roads and canals la Diher 
Stales, after haviii;! spent nut less thiiii twenty millions of dollars in making her own roads and canals. .Situated 
as she is, it would be intinilely prpferahle, I should think, (if improvements are to lie made at the cxpens:' of the 
Federal GoverniiienDlo have the surplus reveniu- divided amon;; the Stales, as proiiosed by the President arcord- 
nu'ti their res|iectivo n:prfcsenlations in Couiiress, &c. DE WIT CLINTON." 

" TheforP!;oinL' leflertioiig are so just, in ih" alisiracl, thai they are as applicable lo New York as toPeiin.sylvania, 
and the fad that thme two great Slates have jone so extensively into internal improvements at their own expense, 
is a presmiiplivp evidence that lliey did not formerly consider ii constitutional even lo vole for approprifttions from 
the General (jovrruuienl for those' objecLs, &.C. They are tlien doubly bound lo act wiih Virginia and the Soutli, 
both on the oliligaiions of consistency and interest."' 

[By the way, I cannot give that corrupt coalition any of tiic creilil they would assume to 
themselves, in the matter of giving a lioine direction to Stulc hnproveiiicnls, as it is olivious tliat 
the rapidi(y of the demand for improvement would not permit the State authorities to wait the 
slow t7iotion of federal aid, and that the hostility, of the party in jiower, to improvement, an 
iini/ feriiis!, is fully deinoiistrated by tiieir attempt tn disgrace the credit of the Stales abroad, in 
the very necessary matter of negotiating funds for those objects, by raiding a hubbub in the Sen- 
ate about assuming State debts, without a hint or reqursl to do so.] 

Were it necessary, I could easily show that these narrow-minded and unstntesmanly doctrines 
of Mr. Van Buren, derived from the Tom Ritcliie school, are not in accordance with the settled 
policy and jiracticc of the country. Independent of the sjilendid instances of internal improve- 
ment, and improvement in our infant manufactures, affording conwncvcial facilities and profits to 
productive lalior through our va.sl extent of country, ert'ectrd by upprnpriatious and fostering pro- 
lecfinn of Congress, the simple fact, that there are standing committees of Congress, ' on Internal 
Improvements," and *' on Roads and Canals," and " on Mauufiietures,'' is alone suiTicient to show 
that these are among the powers or means deemed " necessary and proper" to cari-y specific powers 
into execution. But these imjilied powers are not only the results of the aggregate counsels of 
the nation : even Virginia hcrsell, never was, in her collective sense, as a State, nor in the 
individual opinions of the great majority of her wisest statesmen, opposed to the exercise of these 
powers, as necessarily implied by the specific, power.s. The petitions that have been presented 
lo Congress from time to time, from all quarters of the State, praying the aid of ('engross in 
Jier internal improvement.*, might alone he considered conclusive on this subject. I will select a 
few of those petitions, by their titles, [ircsentcd fron) the remotest parts of the State, during the 
earlier part of General .lacksori's administration, before he adopted Mr. Van Buren's fostered 
doctrine of the 'J'om Ritchie school, but which Virginia has not yet adopted, and I believe never 
will. 

" Petition of the President and Direeiors of the Northern Turnjiike Company in the State of Viririnia, for the con- 
stniction of a road frotn Leesliurc in Virsrinia to Cumberlfind in Maryland, prayins for a siibscription of their stock 
liy the Government c)f tlie United Slates ; which petition was referred lo the Committee on Roads and Canals." — 
House Journal for the session IR2S-'Q0. 

" Petition of inhabilaius of Harper's Ferry and its vicinity, in llie State of Virginia, praying Conirress to L'rant lo 
a company incorporated for the ]5urpose of erectins a bridge over the river Shenandoali. >;roun(ls sufficient for thei 
iilmlments of said bridge; as also for a cram of money to aid inlhe erection of said bridge." — House Journal, session 
lb29-'30. 

'■ Petition of inhabitants of llie town of Wlieclinff, in the Stale of Virginia, praying thai efficient measurrs may be 
promptly adopted for ihe iniproveinenl of the navigation of the river Ohio, from, its -oiirces, to Louisville, in Ken- 
lucky; which petition was referred to the Committee on Internal Im|)roveinems."— Session 1&30-'31. 

" Pelilion of sundry citizens of Richmond, (in V'irijinia,) praying that an adequate appropriation may be made lo 
remove the olistriiclions lo navicalion in Jamer River, between the porl of Richmond and Bur well's bay ; which 
V.MS referred lo llie Coniiiiilleo on Commerce "—House Journal, lS31-'32. 

It is also a remarkable fact that the last of the above-named petitions came from the city of 
Mr. Ritchie's adoption, signed by many of Mr. Ritchie's warmest political and personal friends, 
was the result of several iiublic meetings held on the subject, and was forwarded to (Jimgrcss, 
without any protest from Mr. Kiichie against it. Away, then, with the senseless pretences, that 
a protective tarilf and internal improvements are incompatible with the Virginia creed, and arc 
not within the proviticc of Congress, whenever that body deems them necessary and proi>cr, as 
the means of eiccnting powers .specifically enumerated. 



II. Mr. Van Biircas Inconsiilaictj respecting the coiistitutiunality af a Bank of t/ie United 
States- Hia coniliincd safety liank sijuteni in New York, far pdi Ural purjtn.scs : Failure nf 
his attempt lo ■sedur.c or intimidate the United States Hank In the eiiilirar.es of Exerutive dirta- 
lion — as asuljsiitule for lohich he. introduces his New York system, hy cnnibining Slate bunks, 
n>i depositories of the Treasury, under Executive control: Explosion of the system occasions 
a resort to a suh-Treaiury hunk, in irrder to accomplish Ihe original design nf usurping, con- 
ctntrating, and nionnpolizing Ihe money power. 

It is generally thought that, by constitutional right. Congress wields the moxf.y powf.r as a 
balance to the E.xecutive power over the swonn. But, when it is considered that Mr. Van Bu- 
ren claims the "initiative" as well as the "final" legislation — the initiative by virtue of his au- 
thority to recommend measures of legislation, the final by virtue of his power to veto all bills — 
will not the reader perceive that the purse or money power is brought very much within his 
a;rasp ; and that it is of vast importance to wrest these gigantic initiative and final powers from a 
man whose principles set so loosely upon him, that they flit about and change front with every 



32 

political breeze that blows 1 Under any circumstances, these are dangerous powers in the hands 
of a bad man ; but, beinf; in such hands, with a corrupt majority of the legislature composed of 
his own partisans, supplicating his patronage and e.xecutivc favor, is at once equivalent to an ab- 
solute surrender not only of the money power, but the whole power of legislaiion. 

This brings me prematurely to a remark upon the great "spoils system," of which Mr. Van 
Buren is the author, as it originated in his own State, and perfedcr, as it is now practised in 
the Federal Ciovernment. But, from the definition I would give of that system, it will be per- 
ceived that this sort of corrupt Executive influence over legislation constitutes a part of that sys- 
tem, and therefore a brief definition of it will not be entirely out of place here, though more 
properly coming in connexion with an exposition of the abuses of Executive patronage (properly 
so called) introducerl into the General Government by Mr. Van Buren's clandestine influence 
over Gen. Jackson. 

The m.isl lucid conception that can be formed of this "spoils system" may be that which di- 
vides it into three great branches, as follows: 

The first I would denominate the fZi>£c/ "spoils of office," or of offices actually existing — this 
branch being assumed to be under tlie direct control of the Executive :is his right of patronagk. 

The second I would term the indirect " spoils of office," or of offices not actually existing, but 
in prospective, to be brought ultimately into the sphere of the direct spoils office, by the Presi- 
dent's initiative power of legislation operating upon a venal legislature. 

The third I would designate as the indirect "spoils of business" in general, consisting of un- 
equal benefits to portious of the community at the cost of other portions, to be brought about 
by the President's initiative fiower of legislation operating upon a venal legislature. 

That legislation, so materially in the hands of the Executive, as I have shown the federal le- 
gislation may be, under the circumstances stated, should, in all instances that afl'ect large ap- 
propriations and establishment oi new offices, in which the President either indicates the section 
of country on which such appro[iriations may be expended, or has the appointment of officers that 
may be required, and the disposal of all other matters connected with the initiation and the ex- 
ecution of such laws, CONSTITUTE a ]oart of the great " spoils .'system" must be manifest notwith- 
standing the novelty of the definition. Also, that other legislation, likewise materially in the 
hands of the President, as above supposed, which affects unequally the business operations of 
diffiirent portions of the comnrunity, some for better some for worse, according to their party as- 
pect, SHOULD, in like manner, constitute a branch of the great "spoils system" is equally evi- 
dent. These two branches of that system, however, cannot be reduced to such certain calcula- 
tion of vicious and venal motives, as that of the direct "spoils of office," actually existing — to 
which, by a great mistake, the spoils system has generally been supposed to be confined. The 
"spoils system," then, embraces the whole money power, direct or indirect, lo far as the Pres- 
ident may, by his own act, directly or indirectly bring the control of «7 withis ais own 

GRASP. 

After a protective tariflfand internal improvements, the next most striking example of the im- 
rLiEn POWERS of Congress, is, that of incorporating a Bank of the United ytates, for the purpose 
of carrying into execution one or more of the si>ecifieu poweks, such as "to facilitate pe- 
cuniary loans" upon emergency, " to aid in the fiscal agency of the Government," and "in es- 
tablishing or nraintaining a uniform currency," among other, incidental, benefits that would ne- 
cessarily accrue to agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and other matters of business, promotive 
of the common good, or " the general welfare" of a sovereign people.* 

It is in i\\\% field of implied powers that nearly the whole of the legislative labors are necessa- 
rily exercised in all constitutional Governments, as I have already endeavored to show. And it 
is in this field that systems may he attempted by conflicting [rarties, party compromises and co- 
alitions, or even by the concurrent patriotic zeal of all parties, which, if pushed to extremes, may 
threaten, and imminently jeopard the common good, in violation of that salutary restriction, 
requiring that the exercise of such powers shall he in accordance with "the common de- 
fence and THE GEXERAL welfare" — [a phrase, by the way, which has been so vilified, for 
party effect, as to render it a prejudice against a measure, to say that it is called for or rendered 
"necessary and proper," by "Me general welfare," in " executing a specified power."] Such 
abuses were apprehended to be the tendency of those branches of the great American .system, 
just pa.ssed under review in the for-egoing section — whether from just cause or from the excite- 
ment of strong party prejudices ; and, therefore, a jealous people, yielding to the dictates of pru- 

* Since writing the above, from recollection, not traving llie act of incorporation before me, I am enabled to sub 
join, by wray of rtote, from an able editorial article in the National IntPlligencer, of the 27th August current, the 
preaiiible to theact of incorpor-ation of the Bank of the United States, to winch Washington affixed his approval as 
President of the United States on the iSth February, 1791 : 

" Whereas it is conceived that the establishment of a Bank of the United States upon a foundation sufficiently 
extensive to answer the purposes intended thereby, and, at the same time, upon the principles which afford ade- 
quate security fir an upright and prudent administration thereof, will be very conducive to the successful conduct- 
rn^ of the national finances ; will tend to give facility to tlie obtaining of loans for (he use of the Government in 
sudden emergencies; and will be productive of considerable advantages to trade and industry in general : There- 
fore," &c. 



dential motives, arrested or abated their progress, by counter indioations lo their Representa- 
tives ; and the enlerpri^e of tiie States has well substituted a ]iart of it by their own exertions, in 
the exercise of their co-ordinate power, to meet their own calls for internal iniprovernents with- 
in their respective limits. 

'J'he fixedness of internal improvements, lo the local objects, lendertd it practicable for the 
co-ordinate power of the ytale, and the Federal Government, in this particular, (as in all other 
case* of co-ordinate ])owers, ) to be operative without interference or collision ; and, therelore, 
the right of internal improvement was not exclusively granted, or prohiinted, to the Federal Gov- 
ernment, but was left to i)c exercised (co-ordinately) among the implied powers, •' necessary and 
proper," in the estimation o} Congress, to execute other powers specifically K'"""tPd, "tor the 
common defence and general welfare." But the mercurial character of commercial intercourse 
renders it impossible for any State to protect lier own manufactures by countirvailinjj commercial 
regulations, that would not be liable to aflecl, injuriously, the manufacturing and other interests 
of other States ; and, therefore, the specific power " to regulate commerce," was given up by 
the States, and exclusively conferred on the Federal Government, with t\\e general powtr over 
ail measures that might be deemed by Congress to be necessarily and projierly incident thereto. 

'J'o incorporate a bank of the United States, I have said, was one of the ii/iplicd powen: found 
to be necessary and proper to carry into execution one or more of ihe, '^pecijiec/ powers. Ot the va- 
lidity and soundness of that decision, made in the earliest days of the constitution, by men, too, 
who had taken the greatest part in its formation and adoption, we have the corroborating opin- 
ions of many of the mo^t einiuent statesmen ot the democrutic rcpuld'taLn party of Virginia, as 
well as the rest of the Union, at the time it was lirst adopted ; and the same decision, with the 
judicial confirmation of the Supreme Court, has ever since been steadily maintained, with an in- 
creased majority of the republican party,* up to the present time, embracing the very period ot the 
late UESTiiucTiox of the second bank that had been established and based on that decision. 
And this same bank would have been rechartered by a large majority of all jjarties in both Houses 
of (.Congress, in the high party times of Jackson's administration, but for his veio, which re- 
quired two-thirds of both Houses to pass the bill in iletiance of his pensi'iial hostility. Vet, neither 
the VETO, nor the outrage of removing the public depooites from the bank to insure its destiiuc- 
TioN, and thereby prevent a renewal of the efforts of Congress to recharter the same bank, were 
perpetrated on account of any constitutional objections to a natiuual bank of a particular organi- 
zation (a Tieasury bank) to buit the vicw-i of the Executive. For, besides the evidences of an 
opinion favorable to the constitutionality of national bank occurring in nearly every message of 
General Jackson during his lirst term, there is, in the very draft of his instructions to the agent 
authorized in 1833 to make arrangements for the removal of the deposites to Stale banks, j)repar- 
atory to the destruction of the l;niled States Bank by drawing oiV the vital principle infused into 
it by Congress at its creation, « recognition of the constitutionality of a bank. Of the various 
modes of expression by which General Jaclison declared his opinion in favor ol the constitution- 
ality of a national bank, I take the following remarkable one from his message of December 7, 
1830, with which he connects an acknowledgment, also, of the benefits of such an institution 
to the country : 

" In the spirit of improvement anil comjiromise which distinguishes our country and its institutions, it becomes us 
to inquire whether it lie not possible l<i secure the udvanlngfs afforded by the present bank, through the agency of 
<i bank of the fTnited States, so modified in its principles and structure as 10 obviate conslilulional and other ob- 
jecliou.s.-' 

The passage in Gen. Jackson's' instructions to the agent, above adverted to, runs thus: 

" It is the opinion of the Presideni. that hereafter as hereuilore, hank agency will be found convenient, in man 
agiug the fiscal operations of the Government, and as he cannot, consistently with his avowed sentiments, sanc- 
tion any national insiituiinn organized upon the priuciples of the existing Bank of the United States, he deems it 
proper lo asceriain whether all 'the servicns now rendered by it, may not lie performed hy the banks incorporated 
by the several States, on terms equally or more favorable lo Government.'' 

This was substituted, by order of the President, for a paragraph in the original draft of instruc- 
tions made out by the Secrelarj of the Treasury, in which General Jackson was supposed to be 
adverse to the constitutionality of a bank, and the substitute was made solely to correct that mis- 
apprehension, as we are informed by the authentic narrative of Mr. Duanc. — {See page 91 of 
»aid " Narrative.") 

The reader is now prepartd to appreciate the bearing of these facts, in connexion with others 



* It, might be acceptable lo nianv were 1 lo mention here the names and arguments of the eminent men chron- 
icled in our political and legislative history, as beins original and acriuiescinc advoiates of this power; but for 
want of space and licne must forego those details. It would be seen that such a list would nol only commence with 
the name and clear reasoning of \Vashini;ton, and embrace every other Virginia President, JetTerson, .Madison, and 
Monroe, but that it would include every President we have had, excepting only the existing inrumlieni, Mr. \ an 
Buren. Nay, it would be seen lo comprise many others of the strongest and most gifted talents ol the democratic 
republican party (now so much disgraced by the desecration of its name lo impose Jacobinical, locofoco docirinea 
on confiding democrats,) besides some of ilie present prominent locoforoes themselves: of the former, we would 
see Ihe names of AVm. H. Crawford, .Alexander J. Dallas, and General Smith, of Maryland ; among the latter, ihe 
names of John C. Calhoun, Felix Grundy, and John Forsyth, who are now in close alliance with ihe most radical 
locofocoes against the inslitulions of our country. 



24 

yot lo bo meiitionctl, njjon Mr. Viin Ijuren's position of "uncompromising hostility to a bank of 
the United States," and upon his relation ot " Mn^n us Apollo in General .Jackson's counsels." 

Can it be for a moment supposed that General Jackson vvonid, without .V!r. Van Buren's se- 
cret approval, have persisted in favoring tiie constitutionality 'if a nafumal bank, (of a certain or- 
ganization, indeed,) notwithstanding Mr. Van Buren's declared influence over him, as implied 
in those resistless magical powers imputed to him by his biographer, of " uniting, harmonizing, 
and directing ail with whom he acted," and ns actually exercised by him in effecting other im- 
portant changes in Jackson's opinicms, particularly those of his " reasonable protective tariflf," 
and " internal improvement in avo.ved national (/bjccts," as set forth by Mr. Van Buren himself, 
in regard to the latter, in his Shacco Spiing electioneering letter quoted by Holland, (page 272) 
ill which, speaking of the President's Maysville veto message of 1830, he says, "I throughout 
[the discussion of the principles of that message] gave to the measure, of which that document 
Was an exposition, my active, 'Ze.\lous, and anxious suppoiitI" What is the true and ob- 
vious import of this "active, zealous, and anxious support," of a veto to a measure of internal 
improvement, while discussing that measure of an administration, of which Mr. V-an Buren 
"was the spirit and the creator," at a time, too, when "no formal meetings of the Cabinet 
Council were holdcn, (See Mirrur, page 247,) which cabinet meetings General Jackson had 
dispensed with cluri/ig his first cabinet, in order that he might, without jars and conflictions 
of opinion, give his whole ear to Mr. Van Buren and his confederates, Kendall & Co. 1 It 
surely means a secret, elTective, countervailing influence over General Jackson's preconceived 
individual opinions on the subject; particularly, too, as there were no cabinet consultations held, 
and General Jackson did "afterwards adopt" the extreme extent of Mr. Van Buren's new born 
scruples against the constitutionality of "appropriations, even for purposes avowedli/ of a. nation- 
al cha acter." — (See Holland, page 274.) 

This important question, then, naturally arises — how came it, that Mr. Van Buren, as the 
spirit and creator of General Jackson's adniinislrati(m, as his chief privy counsellor and clandes- 
tine adviser, failed, nevertheless, to indoctrinate General Jackson against the constitutionality of 
a national bank ] and that we hear nothing of such objection, in the history of the day, until it 
suited Mr. Van Buren, in his electioneering overtures to the South, to declare "uncompromis- 
ing hostility to a bank of the United States?" A few facts, to my conception, will render this 
mystery as clear as day : it will be palpable that Mr. Van Buren was not at that time of a mind 
to declare his uncoinpromising hostility to a bank, but would gladly have co-operated with Gen. 
Jackson in procuring the establishment of one, with such organization as would have rendered 
it a fit tool for the abuses of Executive authority .nnd influence, and thereby have brought the 
MovEV powF.u materially under Executive control. Grant to Mr. Van Buren (with the exceptions 
I shaM show to it) the truth of Holland's statement (page 303) that " he has been a firm oppo- 
nent, throughout his whole public life, of the extension of the banking system in New York, and 
of the Bank of the United States;" grant that, with Mr. Wright, Amos Kendall, and the rest of 
his radical agrarian faction, " he considers wealth an order of nobility (ditto, p. 300) not guard- 
ed agaii^st by the bravery or wisdom of our pattiolic forefathers," and that he considers it "the 
grand engine of self-exaltation and popular oppression," used as he has used it ; grant that " of 
all inventions which have been put in operation in this country," he considers "the most excep- 
tionable are incorporated companies, and that the worst of all incorporated companies are banks," 
as he would use them ! and that he (Mr. Van Buren) is a real hard-uioney man, opposed to the 
paper system, in favor of a national currency oi gold, and in fi»vor of an adequate silver currency 
for cominon use (ditto, p. 308 :) grant him, in common vvith his associates, the profession of all 
these opinions as part and parcel of the same system of denunciation they have been practising 
towards all the valuable corporations which have been such powerful and efhcient agents in the 
internal improvement and prosperity of every State in the Union, yet, by the very exceptions he 
has made in his practice, to those professions, I should be able to show the insincerity of the one, 
or the wilful and deliberate baseness of the other — that these professions were to answer sinister 
purposes, and that they were abandoned or laid on the shelf whenever he could make a contrary 
or temporizing course minister to his ambition. Or why did he, as Governor of New York, pat- 
ronize and recommend the combination of her banks, if not as a political engine, under the title 
of the safety fund .system? Why did he, through his long and faithful political yokefellows, 
Levi Woodbury and Isaac Hill, endeavor to convert the United States Bank into a political in- 
strument at the control of the federal Executive ? Why did he, on failing to accomplish that 
object, conspire with other venal and irresponsible associates of General Jackson to obtain by ob- 
lique approaches and intimations to Congress, the charter of a Government bank organized upon 
different principles from the then existing bank ; and, failing in that, resolve its destruction, and 
resort to the association of State banks as depositories of the public moneys, thereby bringing their 
combined influence under the control of the Executive — if all these manoeuvres were not for the 
wicked and selfish purpose of administering to his own ambition, by gaining the command of the 
money power, regardless of the yet untold mischiefs he has brought upon his country ? Of the 
most important facts that serve to resolve these queries, I proceed to give a brief account from 
the best authorities, for the benefit of the public, who have necessarily been unable to see and 



25 

comjiare them \n juxtapositivn, so essential to enabli' iheni to apprcciiitc this brnnch of llic grrat 
" system of spoils" by which the counlry has been bp2:£?!ireil, and the tJovcrnrnciit reducitl to 
bankruptcy. I shall first quote from Holliind, (pages 320, 321, 322) what he tells us Mr. Van 
Buren said of the New I'ork banks, in his message to the Ijegisiaturc the 1st January, 1829, 
"after alluding, in ihe happiest manner, to the distinguished abilities of his predecessor," De 
Wilt Clinton : 

" He (Gov. Van Buren) says the most impnrlant business of tlie session, was the ([uestioii of renewing llie charters 
nf the several hanks in the State: Ihiny-one charliTS wouUl expire in the cniirsc of four years, wiili a capital of 
fifteen millions of dollars, and ilehis amounting lo thirty iiiillions. He alUnlrs to ihe ilirtVicnie i etween tlieir 
situation at thai lime, and the laying the foundation of the lianliins system anew ; and says, In view of the extent 
of these iustiiuti ns and their close cmnexion with the art'ans of the community, that 'to dispeiiso with Lanks, 
altogether, is an idea which seems to have no advocates.' ' He says, that e.xpt lieiice is aiainsl I aiiUing owned 
wh.'lly liy the Slate, and that lo make sloeUliold'TS liable, in their private capacity, throws the responsibility into 
the hands nf irresponsible pprsous.' ' He finally concludes that the present solvent banks cannot be so suddenly 
closed, wiihcnit a violent disturbance of the interests of the public ; and alludes to ' a scn.siblo and apparently well 
considered plan' which ha.i been submitted to him, and winch proposed ' lo make all the banks ri. .'Sponsible for 
any loss the public may sustain, by the failure of any one or more of ihem.' He then presents a briet epiiniiie of 
the "safely I'uud system,' and concludps this pari of his message with thn rrmark, that ' the interest which attaches 
itself lo'lh'p represenialive character, can never be greater than when Ihe fultilment of ihe trust coinmiued to the 
reprpsentiitive, may bring him in conflict with the claims of the great moneyed interrsis of the cuuntry.'' 

'' On ihe Ceih Jaiuiary 1829, Mr. Van Buren, in a brief message"^ intrudiiced [for the second time] In the favorable 
notice of the Legislature, the celebrated 'safely fund system.' This plan orieinated with the Ronor.ible Joshua 
Forman, and was by him laid before Mr. Van Ruren. It was somewhat modified liy the siigLT.'l ion irf the latter 
and finally adopted by the Legislature." ' 

Thi.s is nearly all that Holland says on this insidious scheme, e.Kcept a few extracts from the 
magniloquent praises of it liy Tliomas Hart Benton, (always entitled to do more harm than good 
to any cau^e) addressed to General Davis of Mississippi, in pursuance of the chuidcsiine si/stcni 
of eltcfioiiecring organized by the cabal at Washington. The following is a more! full and 
sagacious representation and commentary of the same p!o( in embryo, from the unknown author 
of \hc I'nlidcal Mirror, p. 233: 

"There is a puwer incident to banking instiliitions, which is siisce^itible of great abuse. They may control their 
debtors and iheic customeis, and miy be used for poliiical effect. Bui in ihe ordinary isolated and independent 
stale of these institutions, llioir number and adverse interests almost annihilate idis power. Their slock and their 
business are distributed lhrou;;hjul the coniiiHinity; and as no one, singly, can affect public ojiiiiion, atlf-nipts for 
that purpose have been, cimsequenlly, never made. But a nionienl's consideration will show a case wholly differ- 
ent, where many of these instiiutions in a State, or in the Union, comliine, and are directed hy the will of an in- 
dividual or of a party. The restraint upon ihe dangerous power of each bank is removed ; the dfpendani upon 
bank favor cannot seek relief from oppnssion by shiliiiig his accounl; he has bul ono mean of olilaining, perliaps, 
indispen.sable pecuniary aid: he must conciliate the Ijank directors, and iheir favor is lo be purchased only by his 
vote and influence in iiolilical contesls. The possible abuse of this power, by individual banks, has, by many sound 
poliiical econoniisls, been objected againsl llu ir creation ; bul their great use overpowered ilie objeciion from pos- 
silile at use, until their very number be 'aine protection. But, when banks combine, the power lo perverl iheir 
faculties is increased, and Uie restraint wholly taken away. 

" Amiil all the excitements of party, fir forty years, no one had conceived the design of combining the banks, to 
control the popular voice. No bold and d( signing politician had ventured upon this expedient, uiilil the subtle 
genius of Martin Van Buren seii;ed it in the projccl of the safety bank system of New York. 

" This system, we understand, is not the offsjirins of .Mr. Van Buren's scheming and prolific brain. Il was be- 
gotten, pri'babiy, in the purlieus of Wall street, in the commerce of money changers, who looked lo il oulj', so far 
as il regarded liiemselves, as a pecuniary speculation, bul who were fully aware that the political power il might 
give would be its best recommendalion lo Governor Van Boren. When first submitted to him, il was received 
coldly. His allenlion, as he lay upon his couch whilst the details were read, was divided between the reader and 
a newspaper: but when ihe saitrestion was made, lliat the combined banks would furnish a power which might 
noi only check the operations of the Bank of the United Stales, Ijul might so control thai insliliilinn as to render it 
a servicealile engine throuL'hout the Union, instantly, all ihe energies of the careless lisiner were roused. No ear 
of love sick girl ever drank with more intense delieht the long-desired, bul unexpecteil, love tale. What a pros- 
p°ct was here opened ! The banks of the Suite of New Vovk, weak and luselcss for party eUecl in their individual 
existence, were hooped tosellier, and becanm like the fasces, ihe bundle of banded rods lioriie by the liclors before 
the Konian Consuls, ihe represenUilive of irresistible power; whilst the bank of the United Slates [would] like a 
serpent, wra|) all opposini; interests in its fdiis and crush llieiii l«neath his feet ! 

" l he project was inslantly adoi'led, cherished, matured, and is now, in New York, in full tide of successful ex- 
periment. Ihe State, .iverwhelnied bv a moneyed aristocracy [so much reviled by Mr. Van Buren except when he 
can use them lo his own purposes] is bound to the car of Mr. Van Buren's ftiiibiiion. I?ut the beaiifick vision which 
pnra(ilured his sight, could not be immediately and wholly realized. The Bank of the United Stales could not be 
seduced or coerced lo minister to his unhallowed ends. The alt em pi lo influence il was not omitted, (however,) 
and Ihe war upon ihat insliiulion which has ensued, so disastrous lo the coun'iy, bul s.i beneficent lo the ' dominant 
parly,' is lobe iiscribed lo jMr. Van Buren!!" , , ^ . ,^, 

* ♦ * (Page 'ijj.) "Tne safeiy fund act, passed in IS29. reriuiri-s that all banks therrafier incorporated [the 
whole of the bank charters were then about to exjiire] should pay annually, for six years, one half per cent, equal 
lo a conlributi >u of three percent upon their respective capilals-io remain the properly of such banks respec- 
tively, but to be vested under the direction of the ('oiii|iiroller of the Slate, in produdne stocks, subject to the 
payment of ihe debts and losses accruins to the communiiv from iiusolvent banks— thereby making the combined 
banks mutual as.surers for each olher,uniling them in such manner that the whole may be moved by the snuie 
impulse, and ojurale irresistibly upon all other banks in the State [and when all shoulil come to be rechaited it 
would embrace the whole.] Three commissioners preside over this [many-headed] monster ; one apiwinied by 
the Stale, the others bv the banks. These are visiters of all the banks of the association ; on the suesestion of 
one of whom, the Chancellor of the State is required, by injunclion, lo slop the proceedings of a bank, and, imleES 
cause be shown 10 the contrary, lo subject il to the pains of iii.solvency. This power, unconm cted with pWilics, 
may have little danser, may lie, perhaps, useful; but in the hands of politicians, and in the condition of most 
cuunlry baiilis, especially in New York, may, and does, make the banks connected with ihe system, the subjects 
of party influence. 




Treasury, and by BIr. Isaac Hill, late editor of a violent Jackson journal of New Hampshire, then unconfirmed Sec- 
ond Comptroller of the Treasury, and now a Senator of the United Slates.) [since a pension agent, and now Ke- 



26 

ceiver General of the Treasury al Boslon,] lo coerce the bank lo remove the president of die branch bank al Ports- 
rnoulh. upon party grounds. This alteniiJl was countenanced, if not fully pariicipaled in, by Mr. Inghain, Secre- 
tary of llie Treasury, who undertook lo give the bank 'the views ot the Administralion' in relation lo the appoinl- 
menl. 

■' Upon ihfse exlrairdinary instances, the bank deemed it necessary to extinguish, if possible, at once, the hope 
of convening it into a party agent. The president ot the institution, therefore, distinctly announced to the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury that ' the liank rightly apprehended his views ; and that it became his duly to Male, in a man- 
ner so clear as to leave no possibility of misconception, that ihe boards of directors of ihe bank and of iis respective 
branches acknowh^dged not the slighltst responsiliility lo the Secretary of the 'J'reasury, toucliing the p ililical con- 
duct of theirofliceis ; that being a subjrct on which they never consult, and never wish to know the views of any 
Adniinislralion ; that, for the bank, which has specific duties to perform, and which belongs to the cciuniry and not 
to parly, there was but one course ol honor and safety ; lliat, whenever its duties came in conflict with Uie spirit of 
party, it would nut comuromise with it, but openly and fearlessly resist it ; that in this its interests concurred with 
its duly, as it would be found, at last, that the besl mode of satisfying all parlies was lo disregard all.' 

"Nouvithstcinding this decisive relaike, there lingered in the bosom of Mr. Van Buren a hope that the bank 
might yei be constrained to submission, or he dreaded to make upon it a resolute and unequivocal attack before the 
party had been thoroughly prepared lo sustain it. Whilst, therefure, the Presidential message of 18-2'J struck a dread- 
lul note of preparation lor danger, it reserved a locus paiiilentia, a place for turnine ; and such continued the pol- 
icy (if the parly for three years ! 

"In that message tlie President was made to observe : ■ The charter of the Bank of the United Slates expires in 
1835, and its slockholders u ill most probaldy apply for a renewal of their privileges. In order lo avoid the evils 
resulting from precipitancy, in a measure involving such impurianl principles and such deep pecuniary iniereslp, 
i (eel that I cannot, in justice lo the jjartirs interested, too soon present it lo the deliberate consideration of the Le- 
gislature and the people. Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank, are well 
questioned liy a lar'^e portion of our fellow-cilizens,' &c. * * * In this there is no comniitlal on the constitu- 
tional power, &,c. The paragraph assumes the character of precaution for the interests of the parlies, while it threat- 
ens the bann with possible danger. 

" Ihe message ot 1830 is more explicit of the views of tlie Administration. ' Nothing has occurred,' says the Pres- 
ident, ' to lessen in any degree tlie danger which many of our citizens apprehended from that insi iiulion, as al present 
organized. In the spirit of improvement and compromise which distinguishes our country and our institutions, it 
becomes us to inqun-e whether it be not possible to secure the advanlaaes atforded by the present Ijank, through the 
agency ol a bank of the. United Stales, so modified in its principles and structure as to obviate constitutional and 
other objections.' Still not a doubt is expressed of the constitutional power of Consress. But the existing bank is 
distinctly apprized of the design of the Administralion to prostrate it, and to establish another, modified on princi- 
ples which would obviate the objections of the President toil. Though the non-commillal hand of Martin Van 
Buren be visible here, there is a clear admission of the right of the Government of the United Stales to incorporate 
a bank, with an expression of a disposition lo make one suitable to the views of those now directing the affairs of 
the nation. 

" The subject (of the bank) is very briefly treated in the next annual message of December, 1831. [Mr. Van Bu- 
ren being iheu absent on his short embassy to England, but left the President more than ever imbued with his wi.shes 
and returned llie next spring, after the rejection of his nomination, to connect his future operations on the money- 
power with his canvass for the Vice Presidency.] The message says : 'Entertainine the opinions heretofore ex. 
pressed in relation to tlie Bank of the United Stales, as at pi-esent organized, I felt it my duly, in my former mes- 
sages, frankly to disclose them.' To disclose what ! Tliat ihe constilutionalily and expediency of the law creating 
the bank was doubled (not by the Administration, but) by a large portion of our fellow-citizens : that many of our 
citizens apprehended danger from that institution as at present organized. There is evidently [in all this tena- 
ciousness ol the idea of a modified organization] a door kept open for retreat, [from constitutional scruples ;] and, 
had the bank proven itself sufficiently docile and obedient, a very inconsiderable change in the provisions of its 
charter ndght have made it, the present bank, constitutional and expedient; and the ' many citizens,' who were 
conjured up to ' doubt' or ' apprehend,' would have been annihilated with the same magic wand that had called 
them into being. 

'• The Admiiiistration foresaw, and events soon made it evident to all, that the nation was not prepared for the ex- 
tinction of the bank, when the design against it was firsi conceived. The first attack was repelled at every point. 
The committees of both Houses of Congress reported in favor of the existing bank. The Committee of Ways and 
Means distinctly put and ably maintained the following propositions: 1. That Congress had tlie constitutional 
flower lo incorjjorale a bank such as that of the United Slates 2. Tliat it is expedient to establish such an inslitu- 
lion. 3. That it is inexpedient to establish a National Bank, founded on the credit and revenues of the Govern- 
ment. 

" Thus rebuked and instructed, a decent respect for the Legislature required that the President sliould have left 
the subject to them and ihe people, [whose immediate representatives they were,] until he should be called to act 
upon it officially. But this course did not quadrate with the views of the party— of Mr. Van Buren. The nation, if 
sutFered to discuss it solely as a question of public policy, would, it was feared, recognise and jmrsue its true in'.eresis, 
and, in due season, recharter the bank, and mar forever the design of the Administralion lo engross and wield ti e 
money-power of the country. An appeal was, therefore, [presumptuously, and in contempt of ihe rights of the 
whole people through their direct legal representatives,] made from the councils of the nation to the Jackson parly, 
[or rather V'"an Buren faction,] who were termed the people ! !" 

Failing in this scheme of alternative parts, either to convert the existing bank into an Execu- 
tive machine, or to reorganize its charter for the same end, Mr. Van Buren's thirti alternative 
was to transfer the "safety bank system of IVew York" to the General Government, so far as 
the association of Slate banks as public depositories of the Treasury would give their coml'ined 
impulses into the hands of the Executive. In order to show that Mr. Van Buren's "associated 
banks" was the model on which the President's new plan was formed, and that Mr. Van Bu- 
ren, who had returned from England, had located himself at Washington, and was the fellow- 
traveller, the mentor, of the President during his Eastern tour, and in close counsel with him 
when he wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury from Boston, June 26, 1833, I shall make a few 
quotations from that letter and from the President's instructions to the agent authorized to make 
arrangements with State banks as depositories and liscal agents of the Government. The 
fallacies ot reasoning and fact exhibited by tiiose extracts, contrasted with the known results, will 
strike the mind ol the reader with as great force as the singular correspondence between the Van 
Buren State and the Van Buren federal associatiox of banks, as a lever to control the mon- 
ey POWIiR. 

"The Slate institutions are, in his opinion, [Jackson's letter,] competent to perform all thR functions which the 
United States Bank now performs, or which may be required by the Government. At the same time that they can- 
not so effectually concentrate the money power, they cannot be so easily or effectually used for individual, politi- 
cal, or party purposes, as a Bank of the United Slates, under any form, or of any character. It is, therefore, thede- 
sire of the President that you should immediately turn your aliention lo the making of such arrangements as will 



27 

enable ihe Government to carry nn all of its fiscal operations through the agency of the Slate banks— (Jackson's let- 
ter to Duane ; see Narrative, p. 16.) 

" But the insecurity of the (jubllc deposiles is not the only reason which will justify their removal from the Bank 
of the United Slates. The President thinks lliat the use of the means and power wliich they give, to corrupt the 
press and publli-. men, to control popular elections, to procure a rechLirler, contrary to the decision of the people, [a 
graiuituus assertion,] and t<> train t>ossei>sion of the Government, which it was created to serve, are suLstanlial rea- 
sons requiring llieir removal." "Biitlhe stmngest and coutitilliiif^ reason, in the mind of the President, is that 
whicli has Ijern before referred to_, and whicli consists in the necessity of organizins a new scheme for the collec- 
tion,* deposite, and distribution of the pulilic revenue, based vn the Slate banks, and making a fair experiment of 
its practicability before the expiration of the charier of the existing bank ; that ilie country may have a lair oppor- 
tunity to determine whether any bank of the United Stales be necessary or not.''— (Ditto, p. C6.) 

•' Tine lias shown that the ciirtaihnenl of the accommodations and llie circulation of the Ijaiik produces no sensi- 
ble effect on tlie business of the country." [Indeed !] "The estaljlishmenl of new Slate banks, and an extension 
of the old, till up ihe space from which the United Slates Bank withdraws, and the community at large is scarcely 
sensible of the change.'" [Truly!] '' Such will be the progress of events, until the bank has wound up its con- 
cerns and ceased to exist, when its absence will neither be felt nor regretted by the people." [I commend this to 
the special wonder and admiration of the reader.]— (Ditto, p. 27.) 

" It is the President's opinion that the power over the Siate banks wlilch tlie Bank of the United Stales now pos- 
sesses, is derived almost wholly from its receipts of the public revenue. It is chiefly through the money thus receiv- 
ed that it obtains, directly or indirectly, the paper of the Stale banks and raises balances against them. If its re- 
ceipts of the public revenue sliall cease, its means of raising tliose balances will cease. If the State banks become 
the receptacles of the public revenue they will instantly be enabled to raise like balances against the Bank of the 
United Slates an 1 its branches. That bank will not oiily be deprived of power, but that power will be transferred 
[where '] into the hands of the Slate banks.'' 

[So giiys the jesuiiical prompter of this letter, while, in his mental reservations, he knew that the power would 
be transferred lo the lianas of the Executive, who was now aboul ?■ ducing them to come within his grasp, as may 
be seen by the foUuwing extracts from the proposed regulations of them 1 y the President:] 

" Instructions," (to the agent,) " (E.) 1. 'I hat one bank be selected in Baltimore, one in Philadelphia, two in New- 
York, and one in Boston, with a right on the part of the Go\ernoient to add one in Savannah, une in Chailesion, S. 
C.,one in the Siateof Alabama, one in New Orleans, and one in Norfolk, upon their acceding to ilie torms proposed ; 
all which shall receive the deposiles in those places respectively, and be each responsible to the Government for 
the whole puljlic deposiles. whtrever made, 

" (F.) "2. That those banks shall have the risht, by a convention of their presidents or otherwise, to select all the 
banks at other points throughout the United States, in wliich the public money shall be deposited, with an absolute 
negative by the Secretary of the I'reasury. 

(G.)"3. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall have the power to discontinue the de|X)sites in any bank or 
banks or break up the whole' arrangement, whenever he may think proper; he giving, in such case, the longest 
notice of his intention to do so which the jiublic intere.>ii may warrant. 

(H.) " 4. That the primary and secondary banks fhall make returns of iheir entire condition to the Secretary of 
the Treasury monthly, or ol'iener if he shall'require it ; and report to the Trensurer weekly the slate of his deposiles 
with them respectively; and that ihev shall also subject themselves to a critical examinatiim of their books and 
transactions, by the Secretary of the Treasury, or an authorized agent, whenever the Secretary may require it."— 
(Ditto, p. 85.) 

Having perpetrated the deed, their extreme .'iolicitiule that the subntitufea for the immoiated 
fiscal agent of the Government shoukl succeed, betrayed the quaciis of the adniiiiistration into 
such extreme stimulation of the State banks to do every thing that could be done by the United 
Slates Bank, that they presently overdid the work with such wild excess as to explode the whole 
system. 'I'he Secretary of the Treasury, immediately upon executing Gen. Jackson's order to 
make the deposites in State banks, addressed the banks selected to this eftect : 

" The deposites of the puVdic money will enable you to alford increased facilities to commerce, and to extend 
your accommodations v> individuals : and, as the duties which are payable lo Government arise from the business 
and enterprise of merchants encaged in foreign trade, it is but reasonable that they should be preferred in the ad- 
ditional accommodations whichlije public deposites will enable your insiilution to give, whenever it can be done 
with'iui injustice lo the claims of oilier classes of the communiiv."— (Extract from the Secretary's letter to the Gi- 
rard Bank of Philadelpliia, dated ■2Gth September, 18?3.) 

In 1S20, there were only 308 banks in the United States. In 1830, during a space of ten 
yearr, (here had been only twenty-two banks added to the above number, making 3.'30. In 1837, 
there were 788 banks, being an increase of 4r)8 banks, in little more than two-thirds of the time 
in which there had only been an increase of twenty-two banks. But immediately after the re- 
moval of the deposites there were more than 200 new banks chartered in one year. Such were 
the fruits of the datestnanship ! of a set of men whose immaculate "director" had professed to 
be theoretically opposed to banks altogether, but had recommended the recharter of the New 
York banks, (as hi said,) merely because ihey were so connected with the business of the citi- 
zens generally, that they could not be suddenly dispensed with. Since then, we have seen him 
and his partisans cooperating in the multiplication of banks almost indefinitely, and as suddenly, 
upon the explosion of their wicked designs, turn aboul to demolish their own progeny, together 
with the whole banking system, which he had avowed could not be dispensed with altogether ! 
Is such a man lo be longer entrusted with the management and " direction" of national afiairs, 
wherein the worst of tyrannies cannot be more disaitrous, than the InstabiUty he has introduced 
in our laics and our civil institutions ? 

Here, then, we Iiave seen that Mr. Van Bun-n recommended the recharter of all the banks of 
New York in 1829, because, " to dispense with bunks altoaelher, is an idea which seems to have 
no advocate." Ptr contra, he is now lor crushing them all at once throughout the Union ; and 
his party slaves in Congress have commenced the work at the last session, by crushing those of 
the District of Columbia, preparatory to the general calaslrophe, which his proposition of a baiik- 



■*• This is a deliberate purpose lo violate the first of the explicit powers delegated to (Congress by the constitution, 
viz : that " Congress shall have power to lay and collbct taxes," &c., by provision of law of course, over which the 
President has no control, but lo execute its provisions. 



28 

rupt law was intended lo effect in finothcr way. (,^uery, did not Mr. \'an Buren's lei.ity towards 
I lie hanks of New York arise from his scheme then proposed, of " lianding them together" as a 
political engine] 

We have also seen that Mr. Van Duron, shortly after putting the amihlnution, " safety banli: 
system," in operation, made overtures and threats to the Bank of the United States, through his 
party friends whom he "directs" to hecome an executive tool ; and pending three years' anxious 
hope of effecting his object of grasping the money power in this way, suspended ail expression 
of his constitutional objections to a bank of the United States; and on his failure to seduce or 
intimidate the bank, even yet, without denouncing the constitutionality of a bunk, he takes 
measures to destroy that institution, and to transfer to the Federal Government the system of 
combined State banks, similar to the combined system he had introduced in Mew York; and ac- 
tually so far succeeded in his unrighteous purpose, by usurjiation and violence to the constitu- 
tion, until the system itself demonstrated the wickedness of the design, and the fatuity of its exe- 
cution, by an universal explosion — partly effected by the contagious mania, brought about by the 
inspirations of Executive madness, of multiplying State banks and speculations of all sorts, the 
natural fruitions of Mr. Van Curen's inordinate over-reaching amhiuon. 

Not disheartened, however, at so signal a reproof for his want of j)atriotism and statesmanly 
foresight, he straightway resorts to a substitute, in a scheme of a sub-Treasury or Treasury bank, 
vviiich his whole party had stigmatized with rcjiroachful epithets, while they had better hopes of 
the other schemes. This, also, he has, after repeated efforts, succeeded in forcing to put on the 
rmlivard n;arh of law, which its gross violations of the constitution will never sanction, and from 
which, its speedy explosion on account of its utter impracticability, will soon prove the country's 
happy deliverance. 

This measure is uxcoNSTiTUTioxAL, not only because it is not embraced in ihc specific poivers 
of Congress, and recogiiizes the power assumed by the President to 'collect' and keep the reve- 
nue, in violation of an ex|>ress power given to Congress to coi.liut and keep by itsown officer, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, whose tiscal reports are ordered to be made to Congress direct — but 
because it cannot be inferred as an implied pmoer, h being neither necessary nor proper " to 
aid in conducting the national finances," which it will obstruct instead of aiding; nor to facilitate 
" the obtaining loans on emergency," as it will impede those facilities by the general embarrass- 
ments that will arise from it; nor will it conduce " to the advantage of trade and industry," but 
the coiitiary, by withholding from active circulation the whole amount of the revenue, for a i 
great portion of the year, while it is locked up in the vaults of Receivers Gfncral. 

It is iBipuACTirAHi.E, hccausc it conveys conllictir.gand incompatible authority to the Secretary 
of the Treasury, the Po-=tmiister General, and the 'J'reasurer of the United States, over the de- 
positos in the hands of Receivers General, empowering cither to control the entire deposites by 
transferring them to any point, or detaining them in despite of one another, and therefore in utter 
derogation of a prompt, regular, and consistent action, according to the exigencies of the Govern- 
ment — leaving, indeed, the salutary or deleterious interposition of the President in such emer- 
gency, to be implied, by another effort of usurpation over law, rather than provide for the possible 
contingency. 

'J'hc bill would also be uxconstitutioxal, even were ii practicable, and could contribute in any 
degree as an implied power to accomplish the objects of specific powers, because it involves so 
vast an expense, and increases Executive power to so dangerous an extent, that it would be the 
last of all practicable resorts to accomplish those objects consistently with "the common defence 
and the general welfare of the country," esscnti.il to the constitutionality of every law, but which 
this puts in imminent jeopardy. On the other hand, without casting about for any other more 
practicable and economical device, the very institution which has been destroyed in order to erect 
this upon its ruins, was more efficient in every respect, and entirely economical, as it cost the 
Government nothing, but paid it a bonus, anJ, while sustaining itself abi)ve "executive dicta- 
tion," restrained instead oi' enlarging " Executive power.'' 

But especially is this law unconstitutional, because it oiiirnxATKn in tut. Skxatk. The 
constitution says: "All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representa- 
tives." Most of the State constitutions express this inhibition of the Senate thus: "All money 
bills shall originate in the House of Representatives." Without insisting that this clause of the 
State constitutions is the true exponent of the above clause of the federal constitution, (and it 
has been the practice of Congress so to construe* it,) but confining myself to tiic straitest 
sense of the phrnse "all bills for raising revenue," it will be manifest, from the title of the sub- 
Treasury bill, that it is a bill for raising revenue. Its title is, " An act lor the collection, safe- 
keeping, tiansfer, and disbursement of the public revenue." Now, to place the proposition be- 
yond dispute, that a bill for the collection and safekeeping of the revenue must constitute an 
essential and indispensable part of the system of " raising revenue," I will suppose a simple case. 



* The bill for appropriating Jg3,000,(K)0 for fortifications, lo provide for a French war, inlo which General Jackson 
was hurrying iis a few years ago, was atiandoned on account of the oljjoction that it originated in the Senate. 



29 

Suppose the constitution were just going into operation, and a bill for "raising: revenue" were 
about to be enacted for the first time : will it be pretended that a bill aj)pi)rtiuning the /axes, 
duties, imposts, or excises, woulil be perfect without a provision for ihe'ir collect Ion and safekeep- 
ing, whether in the same or in a separate bill ] Such a provision would assuredly form a part 
of the system of " raisin;' revenue;" otherwise no revenue would be raised. Weil, such a sys- 
tem has Ions? ago been estal)lished : will it, therefore, be pretended that now an attempt to change 
the whole system of collection and safekeeping, or even any part of il, is not an essential inter- 
ference with, abrogation of, or remodeling, the system of "raising revenue 1" And, if it be, it 
is undoubtedly necessary tiiat such a bill should originate in the House of Representatives. 
Gentlemen of the locofoco stamp may persist in their obstinacy, and continue to place them- 
selves, as they arc wont to do, above law and the constitution, but there is no getting rid of the 
force of demonstration, or (he opprobrium of disregarding it. 

Yet, notwithstanding the outrages proposed to be perpetrated by this bill in a thousand ways, 
Mr. V^an Buren has dared to insult the good sense of the American people by calling it "a 
second declaration of independence," and has actually burlesqued the ceremony of signing the 
sacred instrument of "American Independence" by expressly setting ajiart the holy day of the 
FOURTH OF luLy, at 13 o'clock, to sign this bill of abominations, which, in fact, threatens the 
subversion of the liberties o\ir forefathers won with their blood and treasure. And straightway 
Mr. Ritchie, too, chimes in, and echoes "a second declaration of independence" — he who had 
condemned this same bill, when it was first projjosed, as "enhancing the Executive patronage 
which ought to he iliminished, and as dangerous to American liberty." 

But this is not all. .Mr. Van Buren, under the pressure of embarrassments and panic in 
which his unaccountable blunders have involved him, is so far demented as to issue, in his re- 
cent electioneering letters, a " gross libel iigainst the memory of Washington, by characterizing 
him as one of the founders of "measures devised by the friends and advocuies of privileged 
orders, for the purpose of perverting the Government from its pure and legitimate objects, vest- 
ing all power in the hands of the fj-.w, and enabling them to profit at the ixpense of the 
MANi" — as one of those by whose conduct " the tlw ivere enabled to enrich themselves by 
using the money which belonged to the many," and "in clear violation of the spirit of a 
constitutional />n>///ii7/o7i" — as one of the founders of " an extensive interest," " deriving wealth 
from the use of the people's money," "in pali'aiile violation uf the spirit of the constitu- 
tion''' — as one whose gross errors Pre.-ident Van Biiien was to reform by a measure, by means 
of which "the management of an important branch of our national concerns, after a uepart- 
uitE OF nearly half a CENTURY, will bc brougtit back to the letter, as well as to the ob- 
vious spirit and intention, of the constitution." 'i'his is the picture of Washington, as drawn 
by the hand of Van Buuen ! ! Truly the President has, in this instance, gone beyond his 
pledge to tread in the footsteps of his "illustrious predecessor." That predecessor had, in 1796, 
contented hinvself with a species of negative insult to Washington, by refusing to join in a 
vote in the House of Representatives, on the occasion of his final retirement from public life, ex- 
pressing its sense of his public services. President Van Buuen, true to his promise of imitating 
President Jackson, attempts to "perfect the work he had so gloriously begun," by telling the 
American People, in substance, that Washington was " a deliberate violator of the constitu- 
tion" which he had solemnly sworn to obey I This act of fatuous eflrontery (and injustice) has 
roused the indignation of the country so strongly, that any direct defence of it has, so fur as we 
have noticed the papers of the day, been avoided even by the most reckless advocates of the 
present administration." — {See the Nuliuinil Intelligencer of August 27.) 



HI. Mr. Va7i Buren the author and perfecter of the great spoils system — The direct spoils 
of of/ice only a branch of that system — A key to the machinery used to bring this whole sys- 
tem to perfection, and concentrate it in the hands of the President, consisting of the Press, the 
Post Office, the Armed Force, and the Appointing Power — Their several uses and abuses in 
the hands of a cm-rupt Executive, in monopolizing the whole money-power, and reducing "the 
Commrmwealth to a spoil." 

It is necessary again to recur back a little beyond the commencement of Mr. Van Buren's 
career in the United Slates Senate, in order to bcijin the review (which runs through this period 
till he reached the Presi<lency) of his exjiloits in the direct " spoils of oflice," according to the 
definition given in the beginning of the .second Section of this period of his life, in which, I 
have also treated of some of the subjects that belong to the other two branches of that "great 
system of spoils" to which he has subjected all the resources, public and private, of this great 
republic. 

We have seen that Mr. Van Buren, precocious in all the arts of " uniting, harmonizing, and 
directing" the passions of party, was, at a very early period of his political life, (more than 
twenty years ago,) the author and projector of the New York "regency school"' of politics called 
the "spoils system ;" that is to say, in the mitigated foim of expression used by his biographer, 
' "He avowed the principle iliauhe duiiiiii:uil caiiv sluiiilil alway."! (k s.«e.ss and exerrisfe ihe omcial | atrunage." 
(See Holland, p. 198.) 



30 

I shall now give a ffw further evidences of his continuance and perfection of that sj'stem, in 
the various protean shapes which his ingenuity and his opportunities enabled him to give it, in 
transferring it from his State to the Federal Government — and fou what cbjixt ! 

It is a matter of record in the Post Office Department, that, in 1829, when Mr. Van Buren 
was a candidate for a seat in the United States Senate, to become the colleague of Rufus King, 
whose election he had procured, he canvas-sed with great zeal, upon the prescriptive principle of 
the "spoils system," to secure his election to that body, by the success of his own party in the 
Slate Legislature, through the ofTicial influence of postmasters of his own selection, to fill the 
places of those he reported to the Postmaster General for removal. Let the following letter suf- 
fice here as evidence of that fact : 

*' Van Buren's letter to the Hon. Hem;/ Meigs, requiring the removal of certain officers in order to secure his 
election to the Senate of the United States. 
" My Dear Sir : Our sufferings owing lo the rascaliiy nf dppuiy pcstmasiers is iniolerablp, anil cries aloud for 
relief. We find it alisiduiely inipossiljle to penetrate the interior with tmr papers, and unless ynii aiiaiiuhera by 
two or three prompt removals, there is no liiniiing the injurious consequences that m;iy result fmrn it; let me there- 
fore, entreat the Postm.isier General to do an act of justice, and render us a partial service, by the removal of Holt, 
of Herkimer, and the appoinimpiit of Jatiez Kox, Esq.— also, of Howell, of Bath, and the appointment of an ex- 
cellent friend, W. B. Rochester, Esq., a youne man of the first respectability and worth in the Slate— and the re- 
moval of Smith, at Little falls, and the appointment of Hollister— and the removal of Chainberlain, in Oxford, and 
the appointment of Lot Clark, Esq. I am in extreme haste, and can therefore add no more. Use tiie enclosed 
papers according to your discretion, and if any thing is done, let it be quickly dune, a :}d yuu may rely upon it, 
much good may result from it. " Yours, affpctionatelv, 

" M. VAN BUREN. 
" The Hon. Henry Meigs. 
" April4, 1>19." 
Of the subsequent "additional" [iroscriptive lists furnished in pursuance of the above, and 
other details on that head, it is not material to inquire. He succeeded in obtaining a seat in 
the Senate, according to his wishes, by the vote of a small majority of the next Legislature. 
And I believe, with others of infinitely more profound research than myself, " that Mr. Van 
Buren came into the General Government with an eye fixed upon the Presidency, and w'uh a 
determination to reduce to practice in that Government the ethics of the Aew York school, as a 
77J fans of arriving at his objkct;" for " he was not long in the Senate before he gave indications 
of that [the latter] determination as far as was in his power." Early in the session of 1821-'22, 
a vacancy having occurred in the post office at Albany, and it being understood that Gen Solo- 
mon Van Rensselaer, a gallant soldier of the Revolution and of the late war, was likely to be 
appointed to the situation, Mr. Van Buren interfered to prevent it, and procure a partisan ap- 
pointment, as will appear by the following extract from his letter lo the Postmaster General, in 
which he " united" the concurrence of one or two friends : 

" " Knowing, as we do, that the Republicans of the Slate of New York will regard it as a matter of great impor- 
tance that the posl office at the seat of Government should be in the hands of a genilera:m of the same political 
character wiih themselves ; and anxious ihal they should fully understand the principle which, in this particular, 
governs your department, we have fell it to be our duly and our right to present, on this occasion, that question res- 
pectfully, but distinctly, to your consideration." 

But the Postmaster General, Mr. Meigs, and the President, Mr. Monroe, not being diverted 
by this covert threat from their determination to give the appointment to Gen. Van Rensselaer, 
Mr. Van Buren addressed to his friends at Albany a letter of condolence, and pointed to a hope 
in the future ; from which the following is an extract : 

" You have now the same means of judging as ourselves how far you may, with propriety, regard the appointment 
in this case as deciding, that, in the administration of the Post Office lieparitneni, political distinctions give no 
preference. That you will be disap]3oinled and mortified we can readily believe; but we trust that you will not 
be disheartened. While there are no men ir. the country more enured to political sufferins than the Republicans 
of New York, there are none who have stronger reasons lo be satisfied ot the irrepressible energy of the Democratic 
party, and that no aiiuses of their confidence can Ions remain beyond their reach and plenary correction. On this 
conviction we trust you will repose yourselves, and act accordingly." 

Here, then, we have the satisfaction to lay before the great American Democracy the first de- 
liberate attempt to desecrate their magnanimous, popular denomination, to the purposes of pan- 
dering to a "spoils faction." The sagacious commentary of the editors of the National Intel- 
ligencer, (August 15,) remarks on this movement, that Mr. Van Buren "failing, through the 
coolness and wariness of the two veteran patriots AIoNnoE and Meigs, in the attempt to estab- 
lish his power in the General Government by a coup de main, had the prudence to change his 
TACTICS, and to pursue his object by paths less direct but more easily practicable.'^ 

After his signal disappointment in the case of the ."Mbany post office, in pursuance of his own 
advice of patient resignation and hope in the future, we notice little or no evidence of Mr. Van 
Buren's further action upon the "spoils of office,"' while in the Senate, until the latter part of 
Mr. Adams's aduiinistri.tion. His own State had, in 1824, pronounced Gen. Jackson incom- 
petent for the Presidency when her electors cast for Mr. Adams 26 votes, for Mr. Crawford 5 
voles, for Mr. Clay 4 votes, and for Gen. Jackson only 1 vote. Of course Mr. Van Buren was 
virtually pledged to the support of Mr. Adams's administration. Moreover, his own Senatorial 
term would expire before another election of President. This explains the restraint he put upon 
himself in taking no open part in the earlier workings of certain conclaves in Congress against 
Mr. Adams, preparatory to a second canvass for the Presidency, until after his own re-election 
to the Senate. " It was enough {says the Mirror, p. ^9) to have it known by his contemp- 



SI 

lated dupes that he was opposed to the administration, and disposed, under certain undefined con- 
tingencies, to support the pretensions of General Jackson." The same author informs us (p. 
37) that the "existence ami character of these conclaves, by which a powerful piirly was gradu- 
ally formed, involving; a majority of the Senate, were first developed on the 1st of Marcli, 1827, 
by the i-oie on the choice of prinfc}-." Previous to this time, v^'c are informed by the same auihor, 
that Mr. Van Buren had "carefully avoided the sessions of the organized cabal, and had caused 
cautionary monitions against pre mat U7-e committal for any candidate to be circulated throughout 
his Slate. Uncommitted himself, he was a?;?/ body's, and, consequently, every Lody\'-: mail, 
and was re-eJcctcd to the Senate by a very unanimous vote. The inference was drawn that the 
vote of New Vork in the next Presidential election was placed in his hands. New importance 
was thence given to his position at Washington, and he was emboldened more opeidy, but with 
scarce more efticienc3', to mingle in llie intrigues against the administration, and to appear at 
the si;cnET cahal, at which the great combination was effected." — (Mirror, p. 39.) 

This was indeed a tedious suspense of Mr. Van Buren's customary particifiation in the 
"spoils of office" for party purposes, during a whole Senatorial term. Bui the best he could 
make of the necessity that imposed inertness upon him was, to be ready at the instant of a pro- 
pitious turn of his fortune. Being now reelected for a second term to the Senate, he lost not 
a moment in biying aside the mask, and seized the occasion of the vote above mentioned for 
printer to the Senate on the 1st March, 1827. 

The Political Mirror says, ([lage 37,) " The nature of tliis vote is not a matter of inference 
merely. It i.-s exfdained by the testimony of one [Mr. Van Buren himself] who was a party to 
it, and avowed it to be a party vote." Mr. Van Buren, who had the greatest power in preparing, 
and took the most active part in advocating that vote, distinctly avowed the motive. He said : 

'•He iiad lonj lieen of opinion that llie puljlic inlcrfs; niif.'htljp promotecl, and the condition of the press, as well 
here as throughmit the country, improved, and respect for the SfnalP, and economy in the pul'lication ot ihe prp- 
ceedinss of the Senate beuer secured, by a judicious revision of the laws relating to the public priming ai large. 
At a more convenient season he hoped ihe sul.jecl would be revised ; and he promised himself the best resvdis from 
such revision as the nature of the sulijecl was susceptible of." 

This avowal of Mr. Van Buren is (ar less important as it relates to the primary di?ect spoils 
of office in question, than as it relates to the secondary indirect spoils of office then in prosjiect- 
ive. Though the immediate result of his policy was, to elect % [lartisan ot the new parly com- 
bination of the Senate l)y a imre plurality vote of one, and not by a majority of the Senate, after 
repeated ballotings to supersede the editors of the National Intelligencer, who had advocated the 
election of Mr. Crawfonl, the personal and political friend of Mr. Van Buren, and who had sr.-^- 
ported the administration of Mr. Adams as their second choice, whom Mr. Van Buren's own State 
had preferred for the presidency — and, what is still more remarkable, though the printers, now su- 
perseded by the new party combination, had been elected the term before with the co-operation 
of Mr. Van Buren, without opposition, and had in the mean time committed no offence but to 
maintain their own integrity by rejecting party overtures for their seduction from the support of 
the iidminisiration, (all of which sufficiently declare the covert party malignity and inveterate 
" purpose of the spoils" in the principal actor in this afFair, ) I say, the secondary indirect aspect 
of the professions with which he urged this vote, was infinitely more portentous of the evil con- 
sequences that followed in its train ; and it is on that account that I have taken more pains in 
stating the particulars of it. But the tendency and bearing of the motives avowed on the occa- 
siim, 1 will, as a specimen of prophecy realizrd, leave to be explained by the lucid commeiitary 
of the author of the Political .Mirror, who speaks of it, pp. 37, 38, thus : 

" We have said, that this is a dislinct avowal of the sentiments of the speaker; but it is to be ol)aerved, that the 
speal<er wa.s Mr. Van Buren, riistingui.^hed l>y his skill in uiysiification, and his nn of givine to his sentences an 
herniaphrodiie character. We draw I'rnni the declara ion the inference— which, considering ]\Ir. Van Buren as a 
candidate for llie hishest office ol the country, is as important as it is alarming, showing how unlimited are his 
ideas of power pertaining to the General tjovernnient— ilie inference, that Mr. Van Buren oeenis that Congress, by 
a ' judicious revision,' (a phrase admirably ajipropriate, from its oliscuriiy and iudffiiiiteness, lo the assumption of 
forbidden powi rs,) may improve, i. e. direct and control, the pre.^s ttinaighoui the United States." 

That sagacious author goes on to remark, that Mr. Van Buren's text " was fully explained 
by the practical commentary which was inmiediatcly giveti to it by the dismissal of Gales and 
Seaton (as supporters of the administration) frotn the employment of the Senate, and by the 
subsequent distribution of the public printing and all other official favors by the administration 
of General Jackson, of lohich Mr. Van buren is the vital spirit as hi-; w^as tub creator." But 
I am astonished it should escape the inquiry of our aulhnr, what "respect for the Senate" Mr. 
Van Buren could desire " to secure from the Press," compatible ivith the freedom of that palla- 
dium of our liberties. 

It cannot but he, now, a matter of curiosity to many, to hear what the elements of this cabal 
said on the sidiject of " Executive patronage," which they proposed to " regulate by biw," the 
session before the above vole, when that combination was only in its forming state, and of which 
Mr. Van Buren, as we have just seen, was the occult, clandestine, master spirit. An extract 
of the report (May 4, 1826) of a committee of the Senate composed of Messrs. Benton, Macon, 
Van Buren, White, Findlay, Dickcrson, Holmes, Hayne, and R. M. Johnson, appointed "to 
inquire into the expediency of amending the constitution," and further instructed " to inquire intu 



32 

the expetliency of diminishing or regulating the paironage of the Exrcutive of the United 
States," with leave to report liy hill or otherwise, will show that Mr. Van Buren and his asso- 
ciates of the majority of the committee did affect to denounce the abuse of Executive patronage 
or the " spoils system," through a sheer purpose of raising a false alarm against the administra- 
tion, when such a system actually did not exist, and as yet never had existed in the Federal 
Government. The said committee reported, on the day mentioned, six bills, viz: 

1. " A bill 10 regulate the publication of the laws of the United Slates, and of public advcrtisementa." 

2. "A liill to secure in office tlic faithful collectors and disbursers of tlie revenue, and to displace defaulters " 

3. " A bill to reL'ulate the appointment of postmasters."' 

4. "A bill to regulate the appointment of cadets." 

5. "A bill to rpgulaip the appoiniment of miilstiipnien." 

6. " A bill to prevent military and naval officers from being dismissed the service at the pleasure of the President." 

Now, in order to understand the full purport of these hills as nearly as may be, and the bare- 
faced hypocricy of certain members of the committee who framed them, and have since been 
loremost in sharpening the appetites and letting loose the hell hounds of the whole system of 
the spoils, take the following beautiful extract from the report accompanying said bills : 

* * * " The committee must then take things a.? they are; not beins able to lay llie axe at the root of the tree, 
they must go to pruning among the limljs and branches. Not being able to reform the constitution in tlie election 
of President, they must go to worlc upon his powers, and trim down these Ijy statutory enactments, whenever it 
can be done by law, and with a just regard to the proper efficiency of the Government. For this jiurpose they have 
reported the six liills which have, been enmrerated. They do not |)retend to have e.vhausted the sutijeci, but only 
10 have seized a few of its prominent pninls. They have only touched in four places, ilie vast and pervadiuL' sys- 
tem of federal e.\-ecutive patronage: the Press— the Post Office— the Arrned force— and the Appointing P.'wer. 
They are few compared to the whole number of points, vital to the liberties of tlie country ! The Press is put 
foremost, because it is the moving power of Imman action. The Post-office is the hand maid of the press. The 
Armed Force is its executor. And the Appoiniins Power is the ' directress of the whole !"' * * ♦ "In the 
Country for whicli the committee acts, the Pre.ss, (with some exceptions,) the Post office, the Armed Force, and the 
Appointing Power, are in tlie hands of the President, and llie President himself is not iu the hands of the people." 

If the reader will contrast the subsequent conduct of thk party with this delectable exposition 
of the practicable patronage of the Executive, (practicable in the opinion of the Van Buren ma- 
jority of the committe, for it had never been used and was not considered, morally, practicable 
to use it, by the wisest and purest men in the earlier days of the republic,) he will at once have 
a key, not only to Mr. Van Buren's " hermaphrodite expression" of his sentiments about a judi- 
cious " revision" and " improvement of the Press here and throughout the United States ; but, 
taken with their forbearance to press those bills to a final passage into law, he will perceive that 
they were, with the report, only intended as an electioneering demonstration against the then 
administration, (which Mr. Van Buren's cabal had resolved, as it was profanely expressed by 
ailother prominent member, Richard M. .lohiison, now Vice President, that "it should l>e put 
down, were it as pure as the angels which stand at the right hand of God." — Political Mirror, 
p. 41.) For, the sequel of their conduct has shown that the whole of those resources of 
the "spoils system," flirect, indirect, and remote, should they ever iall into their own hands, 
were too highly appreciated to be thus " pruned and lopped off" by legislative enactments at 
their instance. Taking these engines of the spoils, as ai'lerwards used by the corrupt dynasty 
which succeeded the administration of Mr. Adams, in the order in which the party chieftains 
arranged ihem while acting as legislators, with Mr. Van Buren at their head, as " hannonizer 
and ilirector," I siiallgive a specimen of their plan of "revision and improvement of the Press," 
their uses of the " Post Ofiice Deparlinent," and of ihe "Armed Force;" when, finally, I shall 
come to the subject of the spoils of office jiroper, as their fourth object oi' practicable Exkcutivb 
PATRONAGE in the "Ap[)ointing Power." 

The specimen I select in regard to the improvement of the Press, is from a party witness of 
their own, exposing the agency of one of Mr. Van Buren's most accredited lieutenants, whom 
he has recently deputized from the Post Ofiice Department, to act as generalissimo of his party- 
organized Press here and througlioul the Union. It relates to the party drilling which the edi- 
torial corps friendly to the adminisiralion were fated to undergo, upon the contemplated removal 
of the deposites, as upon all other important party measures that are ever contemplated by their 
chieftain. James G. Bennett, Esq., one of the editors friendly to the administration at the 
time, feeling himself insulted by the course of dictation j)ractised towards him by the cabal at 
Washington, made an exjiosilion of this "in'fluexce bkiiisti thethuone," in a series of let- 
ters to the pulilic shortly after the date of those iinperlinent instructions yvhich he received direct 
from Amos Kendall and R. M. Whitney. The editors of the National Intellisencer com- 
menced tlie republication of Bennett's expo.sc in their paper of the 7tri January, 1834, introdu- 
cing it to the public, with an editorial article, in the fir-st and conclnding paragraphs of which 
they observe: "Our readers will not need to be informed, that in a series of essays addressed to 
them on 'the Bank Question' in August and Septendicr last, we endeavored to make them ac- 
quainted with the character and objects of a cabal, then laboring to cfl'ect the removal (jf the Pub- 
lic Deposites, with the ulterior object of crushing the United States Bank. In those essays we 
shadowed out, but too faintly, we fear, the consequences which would follow the consunmiation 
of their vvishes and labors. Wc did not then know so much as we now do, of the length and the 
depth of their machinations ; nor diel we then suppose that the ' Government' of the United 
States was 60 completely under the injlutnce of their counsels, as subsequent disclosures seem 
to indicate too clearly to be doubted. * » » 



'■The Pennsylvanian is the title of the foremost administration paper in the city of Philadelphia, 
T)f which, our readers may remember, Mr. James G. Bennett (formerly connected with the 
Courier and Enquirer) was recently the editor. Having been unceremoniously ousted from that 
post, for want of sufikient pliability of conscience for its nia>2agers, he has felt it to be incum- 
bent on him to raise the curtain, and exhibit the machinations of as reckless a band of confede- 
rates as perhaps ever undertook to turn the affairs of a great Government to their own personal 
advantage. This he has begun in a series of letters, of which the three first now lie before us. 
If we were not so pressed by other UKitters, demanding a place in our columns, we should con- 
sider it due to Mr. Betst.vf.tt to give them entire. But, to spread the essential part of them be- 
fore our rea'Iers, we are obliged to content ourselves with such extracts as serve to throw light 
on the present posture of political aftiiirs, and to expose the wickedness and wantonness with 
which the public inteie.-its have been })l;iyed with by the underlings who have possessed and 
abused the confidence of the Chief .Magistrate. 'J'hese extracts we subjoin, purpo.selv abstaining 
from comment, except merely to say, th;it Mr. B. has, so far as he has gone, fully redeemed his 
pledge to the public, and vindicated his own honesty of purpose." The editors of the Intelligen- 
cer then proceed to give the extract.s from Bennett, containing two letters from Amos Kendall 
and one from R. M. Whitney, with remarks of Mr. Bennett upon each. For want of room I 
can only copy the Intelligencer's extract of Mr. Bennett's general remarks on the topics involv- 
ed, leaving out Kendall and V\ hitney's letters with .Mr. Bennett's remarks upon each. 

Extracts from Bennett's letters.—" .\n(lrew Jackson was raised to ihe liighi st stalioii udich a free people 
can bcsiow in l6iS-'-29. * * * A small lianil of dfsperatp men, under the excitement an>l iriiiniph of his first 
election, having succeeded to worm themselves into the subordinate offices at Washington, have availed themselves 
of that very popularity and success to create one of tlie most ferocious tyraeiiies that ever reaip] its head in a 
country calling itself free and intelligent. 

" DuVins liie'lasl two or three years, this unseen irresponsible body of individuals, consisting principally of sub- 
ordinate officer of the Executive Governinenl al Washington and elsewhere, have created a confederacy and or- 
ganized a power, which has for its purpose an entire chang~e in the Government of the United States, as establish- 
ed by the patriots of the revolution, and guarantied by the principles of the existing constitution. ♦ * * . This 
irresponsible cabal, who control and write for the official journal called the Globe, have made, in twelve months 
more rapid strides to subvert pui^lic libeny— destroy the cliecks of the constitution— degrade Consress— disgrace 
the cabinet— subvert the liberty of the press, than a niililary leader, with fifty thousand bayonets at hi.s back, could 
have achieved in twenty yeare, in the face of a brave pcojUe, who knew their rights and could defend them. ♦ ♦ * 

'•By the success o( such a scheme, the whole frame of the Government would bo reversed at a blow, and hence- 
forth Congress would be reduced to a couple of contemptible recording corporations, ready to sanction the decrees 
of the temporary dictator, whoever he misht be. 

" One of the principal elements of this conspiiiicy, is the organization cf the Govemnent officers and the news- 
paper press throughout the country, in the shape of a permanent body ot police, empowered to circulate the de- 
crees ol the central conspirators, denounce the refractory, destroy the character of the independent, and elevate 
the power and prerogatives of the Executive, without the slightest regard to the constitution or laws of the country. 

" Taking into consideration the state of the public mind— the situation of th>^ country— the personal feelin'-sof 
the President— the prosress of power, there never was so favorable an oriportunity since the revolution for the en- 
largement of ihe Presidential prerocative— the destruction of the consinution— the degradation of Congiess, and 
the ultimate erection of a dictatorship, or rather a vetoship upon the ruins of all. 

" The Washington Globe is theornan of the prime conspirators. lis ostensilile editor is F. P. Blair, * * * but 
the principal editor is Amos K>mdall, the Jth Au«litor, who, it is believed, also participates in the profits of the es- 
tablishment. * * * He is the master spirit of the confederacy, and contrives as well as executes the general 
plans of spoliations, and the individual executioner of the refractory, be he either a cabinet Minister, meniber of 
Concress, or a newspaper editor. * * * Blair is * * * Whitney is ' a picker up of loose papers,' a glean- 
er of little things about banks, which Kendall shapes into editorial paragraphs, for the latter is entirely icnoraut of 
the first principles about banking and currency, and scarcely ever attempts to talk on the subject without news- 
paper au'hority before him. 

J^"'" When a new editorof any standing or talents begins business, he is immediately written toby the conspira- 
tors al Washington, in the name of the President, or of the republican party, and a course is marked out for his 
especial guidance. The following letters show the beginning of the game which these august personages attempt- 
ed to play with me, through the last smnmer, until they discovered I claimed an entire inJependence in the man- 
agement of my paper, aiul chose to think and act for myself This discovery brought out their whole power 
against me,'' &.c. &c. 

The extent to which "thk Post Ofeicf." has been used as an engine of the spoils party in 
a thousand ways, since their cabal in the Senaie affected to cry out against those abuses which 
they prefigured to the public before they existed, ought to be sufficiently known to relieve me 
from any details here, save only to say, in general terms, that, in a very short time after these 
hypocritical reformers came into power, the pecuniary resources of the Department were reduced 
from the flourishing condition of $202,811 40, surplus on hand, to a deficit of $450, 000 indebt- 
edness, in consequence of illegal borrowing from the banks, to meet the profligate waste in pay- 
ing electioneering agents and party favorites under the pretence cf extras due to mail contractors 
for the most part fraudulently incurred. It may well be supposed that the whole operations of 
the Department corresponded very much with the corruption of its fiscal branch. — (.See the re- 
sults of some half dozen reports of committees of investigation of both Houses of Congress since 
1831.) But of its abuses of the franking privilege, to subserve the purposes of a corrupt Exec- 
utive in manufjcturing and dictating opinions for public adoption, by disseminating them in an 
imposing manner through the channels of the mail, I will give a single instance, to show how 
truly the committee of the Senate in 1827, under the magic wand of Mr. Van Buren, apprecia- 
ted the Post Office as "the handmaid" of his revised press. It is a copy of an engraved or 
lithographed letter, (except the date and signature,) which may be printed by thousands, (and 
thousands of other forms suited to other subjects may have been adapted to their desires as well 
as this,) requiring only the date and signature of the executive oflicersat the seat of Government, 
3 



34 

using nnd abusing Uie franking privilege, to flood the country with the edicts of the executive 
junta, " itisued or to be issued." The original is on file at the Madisonian office, whose editor 
has been favored with it by some one of the persons to whom it had been addressed. 

" Washington City, January 31, 1S38. 

" Sir : I enclose you, herewilli, a prospectus for the Extra Glotie, with the first number as a sainple. These pa- 
pere will explain ilieniselves. The chesyj rale at which llie Extra Globe will be published will enable every man 
in ihe country to become a subscriber. For a single dollar he can obtain a weekly newspaper, published at the 
seat of the National Government, containin'.' the latest political and foreign news. If a number of persons choose 
to unite and forward a larger sum, the subscription to each, us you will perceive by the terms of theprospecius, will 
be less than a dollar. Whilst our political opponents control a majority of the public presses in every Slate, it is 
believed, in the Union, and have in their employ a corps of letter- writers stationed in this city and elsewhere, who 
are daily misrepri senting public men and public measures, it becomes important, to counteract their effect, thai a 
cheap medium tlirough which true information may be conveyed to the people sh<puld be patronized. The Globe. 
it is well-known, is the leading democratic paper ; and, because it is so, great efforts have been made by the federal 
party to impair its just influence on public opinion. They have not succeeded. 

"Lei me hope that you will lake some interest in giving to the Extra Globe an extensive circulatrion in your 
neighborhood. " 1 am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, H. L. ELLSWORTH." 

The intelligent reader will perceive that the scandalous allegations in the latter part of the 
above letter are more descriptive of the " hirelings" of the administration than of their opponents, 
to whom they falsely and maliciously apply them. Other instances, in abundance, of the sub- 
serviency of the Post Office to the purposes of the spoilers are familiar to most persons con- 
versant with the history of the times: therefore, I hasten to a brief survey of the next count — 
the subserviency of the '• An.MKit Fouce" in the hands of a corrupt Executive. Moreover, tiie 
style of this letter declares it to bo the composition of the then Postmaster General himself, Amos 
Kendall, being the counterpart of his secret circular on the same subject. 

The reader should perpetually bear in mind the remark of the committee of Mr. Van Buren's 
friends of the Senate, in 1827, that "the Press is put foremost, because it is the moving power 
of human action" — that "the Post Officf. is the handmaid of the Press" — that "the Akmf.jj 
FoKCF. is the executor" — and that "the Appoixtixg Power is ihe directress of ihe whole." 
Let him then turn his eyes to the means resorted to in order to insure that the "Ahmed 
Force" shall be "the executor" of " their decrees, issued or to be issued," through the Press, 
the Post Office, or otherwise, under the direction of the "Appointing Power," the President ! 

The " Ahmed Forck" of the regular standing army has already been increased nearly double, 
under the patronage and recommendation of Mr. Van Buren, since he has been commander-in- 
chief oit\\e army ! But, in his annual message of the 2ith of December last, he has gone the 
whole figure. Speaking of that part of the report of the Secretary of War, accompanying his 
message, detailing a plan of an armed force of 200,000 men, he said to Congress: 

" J cannot recommeiid too strongly to your consideration the plan submitted by that officer [the Secretary of 
War] /or the organizaliori of the militia of the United i^lates.'' 

Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Poinsett have both, at the instance of Mr. Ritchie, greatly fiilsified 
the origin and object of that " PL.iN," in order to extricate themselves from the embarrassment 
it has thrown them into with the people, who shudder at the idea of an enormous armed force 
in times of peace. I shall not waste time to show the absurdity of those equivocations and falsi- 
fications of dates, &c., but proceed to exhibit, briefly, the objects of so immense an armed f wee, 
to be distributed, in proportion to population, throughout the country. 

Having made pretty clean business of destroying the commerce of the country iiy their finan- 
cial blunders and quack experiments upon the banking institutions, the revenue from imports, 
they begin to perceive, is insufficient to defray the current expenses of the fiovernment, and that 
direct taxation and excises will, of necessity, have to be resorted to, whether these consequences 
formed a part of their original design against the United States Bank or not. Preparatory to the 
latter measure, the process of assessing the property of every description throughout the United 
States, by the census-takers, has been ordered, so as to embody the necessary information on 
which to compute and levy a direct tax. This project had been progressing with but little 
agitation of the public mind, until the new plan of an additional armed force of 200,000 men, 
and the demi-official insinuations of Messrs. Rhett and Pickens of South Carolina, and Mr. 
Jones of New York, induced some of the friends of liberty to apprehend that there was some 
ground of alarm. 

It now appears that the object of the armed force of 200,000 men is in part to enforce the collec- 
tion of the direct tax, should it meet resistance, as it surely would, in some parts of this yet inde- 
pendent country. I subjom the testimony in an extract from the "Gaspef, Tohch-lirht." 

"Isaac Hill, now receiver-general for New Ensiland, in a political lecture delivered before the Van Buren asso. 
ciation of Providence (R. 1.) last March, declarecf ' that the expenses of the General Government should be paid by 
a direct tax upon property.' He proclaimed this as one of ihe final measures of the administration parly. That 
there should be no mistake about this matter, we, soon after the delivery of that lecture, and while the declarations 
of Mr. Hill were fresh in the recollection of all, obtained the following certificate, signed by eight highly respecta- 
ble gentlemen of this city, who heard the lecture ; which certificate was, last April, publislied in a communication 
of ours in the Providence Journal. It was not then, has not since, and cannot now, with truth, be denied : 

' '• Providence, March 25, 1840. 

" ' We, the undersigned, freemen of this city, hereby certify that we attended a 1 cturo delivered by Isaac Hill, 
of New Hampshire, before and at Ibe request of the Demecratic Association of said city, in the masonic hall of Prov- 
idence, on the evening of the sixth instant; and that, in said lecture, said Isaac Hill did stale positively and distinct- 
ly the following to be among the true principles of genuine Van Buren democracy, viz : 

" ' 1. The abolition, not only of all protective duties, but of all import duties, and the abolition of the whole cus- 
tom-house system. 



35 

" ' 2. That the expenses of the General Govprnment shoiiUl be paid by a direct tax upon properly, Ice. 

" '3. That gold and silver was the only currency whicli tlie General Government had the constitutional power to 
provide for the people of this country ; and that Con<;ress ha I no power to create a system of naii >nal currency and 
exchiingps by means of a national bank,(sucli as Wiishington recumniended in I~91,and iVIadison approved in 1816.) 

"'4. That all distribution acts were wron^, and calculated to corrupt the States and the peuple, thuuuh he did 
not attempt to show why the money should be more corrupting in their liands than in the hands of the General Gov- 
ernmenl. 

'• ' 5. That no division of the proceeds of tlie sales of the public lands among the several States ought therefore to 
be made (ir allowed to be jjiade by the General Government. 

" ' G He b lasted that his Van Buren friends in New Hampshire had attained to that happy stale of den.ocralic 
purity anil perfection, that they coidd now take strong and decideij ground in favor of ihe above princi|iles and 
measures of the Van Buren party — thit they were oppised lo a laritf— opp sed to a national bank— opposed to any 
division of the pruceeds >f the sales of the public lands* among the several Slates. 

" • We understo lod Mr. Hill to distinctly lay down the above priiicipl 'S and doctrines as the true principles of 
the present Van Buren democratic party. BE^fONI COOKK. JOSEPH SW'KET. 

T. U. GOODHUE. N. S. DUAl'ER. 
WI\I. J. H.\RHIS. MAKTIN UOBINSON. 
GEO. W. TYLKR. JrHN L. NOYES.' " 

But to insure the ohedience of the armed force thus protjosed, and prevent them from co-op- 
erating with their fellow-citizens agiiinst fedeial misrule and oppression, ihey are, according to 
the plan of the President and .Mr. Poinsett, to be suljectcd to "the regulations of the army." 
Now, if this does not constitute that armed force a part of the standing army, ihcn they are siill 
entitled lo l>e called citizen-militiamen. It then results that, if the President mny ihus avoid the 
odium of proposing a standing army of 200,000 men, he must encounter the odium, not less 
embarrassing, of reviv ng the "sedition law" among us, to the extent of the ap|>licalion proposed 
of those regulations of the army, of which the Jiflh, sixtli, and ninth articles are more op))res- 
sive to the citizen than the "sedition law," and could oidy be politic as regulations ot an army 
in time of war, viz : 

"Art. 5. Any officer or soldier who shall use contemptuous or disrespectful words asainst the President of the 
United States, ajainsi the Vice Presiilent therec(f, against tlie Congress, or any of the United Slates in which they 
may be iiuartered, if a conunissioned officer, shall be cashiered, or punislted as a co urt-nianial shall direct; if a non- 
commissioned officer or soldier, shall sutFer such punishment as shall be inflicted on liim by the judgment of a court 
martial. 

" Art. 6. Any officer or Siddier who shall behave himself with contempt or disrespect towards his commanding o(" 
ficer shall I.e punished acconlins to the nature of his offence, by the judgment of a court martial." 

''Article 9. Any officer ors ddier who shall strike his superior offic. r,or draw or lift up any weapon or offer any 
viidence against him, being in llie execution of his office, on any pretence whatever, or shall disobey any lawful 
command of his superior officer, shall suffc-r de alh, or such punishment as shall, according lo the nature of his offence, 
be inflicted upon him by the sentence of a court martial." 

Suffice it to say that similar offences of " contemptuous writing, speaking, or publishing, 
against the President, the Congress," or other authorities, "with the intention to detame or 
bring them into disrepute," were punishable by thk skdition law with " fine not exceeding 
two thousand dollars, antl imprisonment not exceeding two years." Thus, it is placed beyond 
the reach of the most daring mendacity to deny, with semblance of truth or credibility, that the 
President has proposed to organize a standing army of 200,000 tnen, or to revive the "sedition 
law" to that extent, but in a more tyrannical form than ever. 

Let us now, in the last place, pay our respects lo Mr. Van Buren's further agency in bringing 
his " regency spoils .system" to embrace the " Appointing Powkii" of the Federal Government, 
that " directress of the whole" system of spoils, by which, after the example ol those demagogues 
who subverted the Greek republics more than 2,000 years ago, he has made " politics a trade, 
and the commonwealth « .9/3o«7." Under the "magic direction" of Mr. Van Buren, (as his 
biographer tertns it,) the same men who contrived those bills and report above quoted, with their 
party associates in the Senate, took early opportunity to reserve the spoils of oHice, that vacancies 
and other means afforded, for the disposal of the coming ailministration of Andiew .lackson ; and 
thus materially aided, by a Senatorial lead, in tempting General Jackson from the broa<l high- 
way, the long beaten track of Republicanism, which he had pledged himself to follow, in ex- 
terminating the monster, " party spirit;" for example : 

When the nomination of the honorable John J. Crittenden was made to the Senate, on the 
18th December, 1828, to fill a vacancy on the liench of the Supreme Court, it was ordered, by a 
party vote, to lie on the table; where it did lie, till General Jackson, nearly four months after, 
hail an opportunity to fill the vacancy by the appointment of Judge McLean. 

♦ "In reeard to the disposal of the pul'lic lands," says Holland, page 238, "atopic nfsreal interest and great diffi- 
culty, the f dlowing remarks of Mr. Van Buren were made on a motion to ask for information, in the Senate, May 
18, i8i6 : 

" Mr. Van Buren said." ♦ * * " No man could render the country a greater service than he who 
sh luld devisesime plan by which the United States might be relieved from the ownershipof this property, by some 
equiuible mode. He w )uld vote fur a pmposi: inn to vest th ■ lands in the Slates in which they stood, on s iine just 
and equitable terms, as related to the other Stales in the confederacy. He honed that, after having full iiif irmalion 
on the 3u!)ject, they would lie able lo effect that sreat object. He believed that if those lands were disposed ol at 
once U) the several States it w.)uld be saiisficlory tu all !" 

A more visionary politician, seitincr at naught all the wisest counsels and acts of our ancestors, never lived. The 
States, severally, once owned these lands, but to seule and harmonize their possible conflicting interests, nobly 
surrendered ;hem to the common slock, to the Union ; and Mr. Van Boron's proposiliim would n w involve a great- 
er discord than c uld possibly have arisen out of Ihe loriner coiic'iiion of this properly. Indeed, it seeineth that 
nothing is good till it is remodeled by Mr. Van Buren ! ! Thus it is with all quacks ! ! ! 



36 

It would seem that the glorious period for which Mr. Van Buren Tecornmended his friends aJ 
Albany to live in hope, and not be disheartened, was now beaming on his gladdened vision i 
and the whole country sadly knows how he regaled himself and his spoils party, when the day 
of his long desired fortunes was confirmed. Among his first acts, when he became Secretary of 
State, as a persona! reward for his influence in giving the whole clectorial vote of New York to 
General Jackson, or in discharge of a political debt to the State for the same service, was that 
proscriptive measure of removing, at a sweep, nearly all the clerks of the State Department, 
among whom were Mr. Fendall, Mr. Slade, Mr. Thruston, Mr. Brown, Mr. Smith, with some 
three or four others from the Patent Ofi'ice, and filling their places with party favorites, as did 
his exemplar, Amos Kendall, in the Fourth Auditor's office. 

Shortly after this commencement, Mr. Van Buren showed his alacrity at the work of desola- 
tion, by h'la influence in another department, the Post Office, the only other that adopted his ex- 
cesses. It vcas scarcely known to a spoils friend of his in Louisiana that he was appointed 
Secretary of State, when that friend, a Mr. Overton, addressed him a letter dated 21st March, 
1829, requesting his influence in procuring the removal of certain officers in that department ; to- 
which Mr. Van Buren returned the following answer, expressedin a breath, dated April 20, 1829 • 

"My DEAR SIR : 1 have tlie honor of acknowledging tlie receipt of yours of the 21st ultimo, and of informina 
you thai the rcnioviils and apiiointmenis wtiich you recommended were inade on the day your letter was received. 
" With respect, your friend, &c. 

" M. VAN BUREN." 

The guillotine never severed the head from the body of its victinig in the terrific days of Dan- 
ton, Marat, and Robespierre, with equal haste, in its greatest thirst for blood. 

If these instances did not suffice to show that the whole mania of the spoils system, practised 
m the name of General Jackson, was of Van Buren origin, as he was of General Jackson's ad- 
ministration " the spirit and the creator," I could at least give ample testimony of his improve- 
ment upon it, by hh practice since he has, by the foulest meaiis, succeeded to the Presidency. 
His wanton removals of faithful and capable officers, and his appointment of party favorites in 
their places, some of them known to be infamous, his retention of notorious defaulters, and his 
declaration that it is less objectionable for individuals to use the public money, [by their own as- 
sumption,] than that corporate institutions should use it, [by the permission I'f the Government,] 
and, finally, his further declaration that "rotation in office was a part of his system," i e. to 
make dismissals and appointments at his will and pleasure, on spoils principle, without regard 
to the good of the public service, would 'sufficiently establish his hearty adoption, if there were 
not already exhibittsd full evidence of his paternity, of the whole system. 

Without dwelling, in detail, upon the thousands of examples of this abuse of usurped power, 
the doctrine i^( Executive right under which they have been practised, taken with its fearless and 
wanton execution, proves that the monet powek, not only to the full extent of the appropria- 
tions for the civil list, but for disbursements of every description whatever, for the current ex- 
penses of the Government, is assumed and exercised by the President, by virtue of his control of 
the tenure of office of those receiving and disbursing the same : and not only this, in its simple 
amount, but the same infinitely multiplied, inasmuch as when the appointments and salaries 
are once assigned to officers, these being tenants-at-will of the President, he exercises the con- 
trol of the money power not only to that amount, when first bestowed, but in the compeund 
ratio of its perpetual renewability every instant afterwards, the actual an ount oi which, in the 
hands of such a man as Mr. Van Buren, cannot be computed by the greatest adept in arithmeti- 
cal calculations. 

It would not be inappropriate here to ask, whence Mr. Van Buren derives the " KEMOVise 
POWER 1" It is not granted to the President by the constitution — and Mr. Van Buren is the 
advocate of a strict construction of powers, according to the letter: if it be alleged that it has 
been acted on long enough to give it the weight of an express grant — which is not true — yet the 
usage of precedent has no authority with him, for he condemns all who have been acting, for a 
half century, on the principles of construction by which our whole financial system was put in 
motion. Nor does he hold with the doctrine of any power whatever being inherent in an office ; 
for this doctrine was very ingeniously (if without sense) opposed by him, in the discussion of 
the famous Foote's resolution, when he denied the inherent right of the presiding officer of the 
Senate to call to order, however disorderly any member might be on the floor of the Senate. If, 
then, the removing puvier be not granted to the President by the constitution — if it be not an 
implied and inherent executive right — if it cannot be sanctioned by mere usage and precedent for 
a half century — I would ask, again, whence is-it derived 1 

I have said, parenthetically, that the removing powf.ii was not considered to be a legitimate 
or constitutional power of the Executive, by most of the wisest and purest statesmen, in the 
earlier days of the republic. When the subject of the removing power was under discussion 
in the House of Representatives, June 16th and 17th, 1789, (being the 1st session of the 1st 
Congress,) it was ably argued that it was co-ordinate with the appointing poweh, and that 
the Senate had the same right to participate with the President in the one as in the other. This 
discussion took place on " The Bill for establishiitg a7i Executive Department, to be denomi- 



37 

naled the Department of Foreign Affai)-s." The first clause, after stating the title of the officer 
•and his duties, had these words : " To be removable from office by the President of the United 
States. " 

It is obvious to every discernment that the insertion of this clause fully declared the absence 
of a constitutional or inherent power in the Executive to make removals, which would render 
this clause superfluous, or rather a negation of that power, when not recognised by law. Many 
members who denied the existence of the power were averse to grantmg it in any case, and 
therefore proposed to strike from the bill this clause granting the power in this case. It was, 
however, retained as a legislative grant of power over the tenure of this office by a vote of 34 
to 20. 

" Mr. White, of Virginia, said : The constitution gives the President the power or iroMi- 
.* NATiNo and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoixtiitg to office. As 
' I conceive the power of appointing and dismissirig to be united in their natures, and a prin- 

• ciple that never was called in question in any government, I am adverse to that part of th« 
•clause which subjects the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to be removed at the will of the Presi- 
«dent." »*..*.*.»» 

• * "Mr. Madison, of Virginia, said: • • The constitution affirms that the execu - 

• live power shall be vested in the President. .\ re there exceptions to this proposition 1 Yes, 

• there are. The constitution says that, in appointing to office, the Senate shall be associated 

• with the President, unless in the case of inferior offices when the law shall otherwise direct. 
' Have we a right to extend this exception 1 I believe not." * * "The question now re- 
' solves itself into this : Is the power of displacing an executive power ?" [Having already said 

• it was a power " incident to that department," he went on to say :] <' I conceive that if any 

• power whatever is in its nature executive, it is the power of appointing, overseeing, and con- 

• trolling those who execute the laws. If the constitution had not qualified the power of the 

• President in appointing to otnce, by associating the Sesate with him in that business, would 

• it ni)t be clear that he would have the right, by virtue of his executive power, to make such 
' appointments?" &c. &c. 

Hence, Mr. Madison concluded that, as the constitution did not also expressly qualify the re- 
moving power, by associating the Senate with the President in that regnrd, this " inherent power" 
is self-operative in the Executive : to which Mr. Jackson replied with great force and resistless 
power of argument; from which the following extract may be deemed as prophetic : 

" Mr. Jackson, of (Georgia, said: As a constitutional question, it is of great moment, and 

• worthy of full discussion. I am, sir, a friend to the full exercise of all the powers of Govern- 
' ment, and deeply impressed with the necessity there exists of having an energetic Executive. 

• But, friend as I am to the efficient Government, I value the liberties of my fellow-citizens be- 

• yond every other consideration ; and, where I tind them endangered, I am willing to forego 
'every other blessing to secure them. I hold it as good a maxim as it is an old one, 'of two 

• evils to choose the least.' 

"It has been mentioned that in all Governments the executive magistrate had the [inherent] 

• power i>f dismissing officers under him. This may hold good in Europe, where monarchs 
•claim their powers ^w^'e divino, but it never can be admitted in America, under a constitution 
•delegating enumerated powers. It requires more than a mere ipsi dixit to demonstrate that 
' any power is, in its nature, exkcctivk, and consequently given to the President of the United 

• States by the present constitution. But, if this power is incident to the executive branch of 

• the Government, it does not follow that it vests in the President alone, because he alone does 
' not possess all executive powers. The constitution has lodged the power of forming treaties, 

• and all executive business, I presume, connected therewith, in the President, but it is qualified 

• ' by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,* provided two-thirds of the Senate agree 
•therein. From this, I infer that those arguments are done away, which the gentleman from 
•Virginia (Mr. Madison) used to prove, that it was contrary to the principles of the constitu- 

• tion that we should blend the executive and legislative powers in the same body." • • • 

" It has been observed that the President ought to have this power to remove a man when he 
•becomes obnoxious to the people or disagreeable to himself. Ahe we thf.x to have all the 
♦officers thk merk crkatubks of the President] This thirst of power will introduce a 

• Treasury bench into the House, and we shall have ministers obtrude upon us to govern and 

• direct the measures of the legislature, and to supjiori the influence of their master ; and shall 

• we establish a different influence between the peojile and the President T I suppose these cir- 

• curastances must take place, because they have taken place in other countries. 'J'he executive 

• power falls to the ground in England, if it cannot be supported by the Parliainent ; therefore, 

• a high game of corruption is played, and a majoriiy secured to the ministry by the introduction 
« of placemen and pensioners. 

"The gentlemen have brought forward arguments drawn from possibility. It is said, that 

• our secretary of foreign affairs may become unfit for his office by a fit of lunacy, and therefore 
•a silent remedy should be applied. It is true, such a case may happen, but it may also happen 
' where there is no power of removing. Suppose the President should be taken with a fit of 



38 

' lunacy, would it be possible by such arguments to remove him ? I apprehend he must remain 
' in office during his four years. Suppose the Senate should be seized with a Jit of htnucy, and- 
' it was to extend to the House of Representatives, what could the people do uut knuuuk this 
' MAD CoyoiiKss TiLi, THK TKiiM OF TiiEin KLKCTioNS KXi'iUEnl We have seen a King of 
' England in an absolute fit of lunacy, which produced an interregnum in the Government. 
'The same may happen here with respect to our President; and, although it is improbable that 

• the majority of I'oth Houses of Congress may be in that situation, yet it is by no means im- 

• possible! [Does not the present locoloco majority of the j)resent Congress verify this"!] But 

• gentlemen have brought Ibrward another argument with respect to the judges. It is said they 

• are to hoM their offices during good behaviour. I agree that ought to be the case. But is not 
•a judge liable to the act of God as well as any other officer of the Government T However 

• great his legal knowledge, his judgement, and integrity, it may be taken from him at a stroke, 
' and he rendered the most unfit of all men to fill such an important office. But can you re- 
' move him ] Not for this cause ; it is impossible, because madness is no treason, crime, or 
' misdemeanor. >•**»«*»♦» 

" But let me ask gentlemen if it is impossible to place their officers in such a situation as to 
' deprive them of their independency and firmness ; for, I apprehend it is not intended to stop 

• witli the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Let it be remembered that the constitution gives the 

• President the command of the jiilitaut. If (in addition to this) you give him com])lete power 
« over THE MAN with thk STRONG BOX, he will have the liberty of America under his 
'thumb. It is easy to see the evil which may result. If he wants to establish an arbitrary au- 
thority, and finds the SECRETARY OF FINANCE not inclined to second his endeavors, 
' q;^/' he has nothing more to do than to remove him, and get one appointed of phinciples 
'more congenial with his own. Then, says he, I have got the army ; let me but have the 
' money, and I will establish my throne upon the ruins of your visionary republic I Let no 
' gentleman say I am contemplating imaginary dangers — llie mere chimeras of a heated brain. 
' Behold the baleful influence of the rotal prehooative ! All officers, till lately, held their 
♦commissions during the pleasure of the Crown." 

* * * "I agree that this is the hour [the 1st session of the 1st Congress] in which we 
' ought to establish our Government ; but it is an hour in which we should be wary and cautious, 
'especially in what respects the executive magistrate. With him [Washington] every power 
' may be safely lodged. Black, indeed, is the heart of that man who even suspects him to be 
•capable of abusing them. But, alas! he cannot be with us forever; he is liable to the vicissi- 
' tudes of life; he is but mortal, and though I contemplate it with great regret, yet I know the pe- 

• riod must come which will separate him from his country ; and can we know the virtues or vices 
' of his successor in a very few years ? May not a man with a Pandora's box in his breast come 

• into power, and give us sensible cause to lament our present confidence and want of foresight 1" 

• -;*»»**»» 

" Mr. Page, of Virginia, said : I venture to assert that this clause contains in it the seeds 
'of ROYAL PREROGATIVE. If gentlemen lay such stress on the energy of Government, 
' I beg them to consider how far this doctrine may go. Every thing that has been said in favor 
•of energy in the Executive may go to the destruction of freedom, and establish a DESPOT- 

• ISM. This very energy so much talked of has led many patriots to the bastii.f, to the 

• BLOCK, and to the halter. If the Chief .Magistrate can take a man away from the head of a 
« department, uu'fhout assigning any reason, he may as well be invested with power, on certain 

• occasions, to take awat his existence. But, will you contend tl)at this idea is consonant 
' with the principles of a free Government, where no man ought to be condemned unheard, nor 
' till after a solemn conviction of guilt on a fair and impartial trial ? It would, in mt opinioit, 

• be better to suffer for a time the MiscHihF ARi.siNG from the conduct of a bad 

•officer, than admit PRINtlPLVS WIIICH WOULD LEAD TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DES- 

« POTIC PREROGATIVES," &c. 

The reader knows full well how truly have these royal, these despotic prerogatives, been re- 
alized, and that to the fullest extent, by the encroacliments and usurpations of the Executive, 
during the last ten or twelve years. Now although these usurpers have professed the doctrine of 
" strict construction of the constitution," that instrument confers no express power oi removal 
60 much exercised by them ; and although Mr. Madison contended that this power " is incident 
to the executive office," and essential to the responsibility of the President in seeing that the laws 
be faithfully executed by inferior executive officers, as he expressed it in the House of Repre- 
sentatives in 1789, and though General Washington, Mr. J. Adams, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Mon- 
roe, and Mr. J. Q. Adams, must have concurred with Mr. Madison as to this " incidental pow- 
er" to enable the President to insure the efficacy of the public service, under his supervision, as 
each of them made a few removals on that principle, yet none of them abused the power by 
perverting it to the illegitimate purposes of proscription, favoritism, or any other uses than those 
purely emanating from the dictates of the public good — a consideration that seems to have had 
no part in governing the transfer of the spoils system to the General Government under the pre- 
sent dynasty, contrary to their professed principles of literal construction of powers. 



39 

But il is propoi- to bay, as a part of the secret hititory of this transfer of liie spoils of office to 
the General (Joveniiiicnt, Mr. Van Buren and his coadjutors met with considerable difficulty in 
the coniineiiceinent of his plans in 1829, on account of the greater favor of Southern men and 
Southern principles at the time with General Jackson. None of the other Secretaries had yet 
done much in the way of proscription except Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Barry ; and, on account 
(if those removals that were made, Mr. Ritchie, of the Itichmond Enquirer, a supporter of the 
administration, was continually bearding the President. Among the repeated instances of his 
setting his countenance against all reinovals, except for gnod came, and uuth explanatory rea- 
sons, it will be sufficient to note, from the columns of the Enquirer, the following : 

May 5, 1829. — " We are no advocates for the removal of good, faithful, and meritorious 
' officers, who have not been warm political partisans, but we are opposed to all corruption. It 
' is peculiarly incumbent upon the present aduiinislration to supersede all faithless officers, to 
' look keenly into the departments, remove every complaint, and cleanse tlic Augean stables of 
' alfuses.'^ 

Mat .12. — " .Mr. Niles objects to members of Congress being appointed to executive oflices, 
' except of the /t/i,'-A('5/^?'a(/e, in which we have uniformly agreed with him. * * We 
' sec no occasion to change this opinion. ''- * The moment he [the President] aj)points 

* members to ministerial otfices, as postmasters, collectors, auditors, &c., it will be time for the 
' people to speak out." 

JfXK .5, '29. — " 'J'here have been some more recent removals at Washington. Justice re- 

* quires thit t/ie reasons of them should be understood before we pass sentence upon them," &c. 

JuxE 5. — " We have understood all the circumstances under which .Mr. Campbell received 
' the appointment, (of Treasurer,) and it is doing him even less than justice to say, that there 

* is nothing in the manner in which he obtained il, at which the slightest exception could be 

* taken by the most fastidious opponent." 

Ju.vK 19 — "Mr, Campbell did not see/c /w turn Mr. Clarke out He did not know that 

* Mr. ('larke was to be removed — he had not any idea of becoming treasurer. When he was 
' told Mr. Clarke is certainly to go out — will you accept the ap|)ointment T The most fastidious 

* delicacy could not take exce{ition at the proposition. We know this to he the fact," &c. 

On another occasion, about this time, Mr. Ritchie went so far as to twit the administra- 
tion over the shoulders of Mr. Berrien and Mr. Van Buren, (fortifying himself at the .same 
time wit!i tiie assertion of popular discontent in Virginia,) saying, that "Mr. Berrien and 
Mr. Van Buren could tell the National Journal why Virginians do not wish to turn one 
another out of otlice." From this side-blow by Mr. Ritchie, taken in connexion with his other 
oblique censures o( removals and appointments, it is obvious there must have l)een some private 
inter-communications between him and Mr. Van Buren, deprecatory of the spoils system, which, 
however uncongenial with the spoiler's views, he had to endure in silence, under the terrors of 
popular wrath in Virginia, and betake himself again to liojie in the future — regarding, at the 
same time, with aggravated chagrin, the paramount interest that General Jackson then felt for 
Air. Calhoun's pretensions to the succession ; for, Mr. Calhoun had witiidrawn from the Presi- 
dential contest, in 1824, h,-;l thrown his interest into the scales of CJencral Jackson, and had 
contiriucd to advocate his cause till it was succc.-isful in 1828: yet hoping to attain the high 
objects of his own ambition, ns the successor of General Jackson, afier his enjoyment of one 
term. " But against this consummation of his vvishes (^says the Political Mirror, page 124) 
all the powers of the ifoc/i «;•/ had combined. The [totcni magician had woven his cfiective 
spell." Accordingly, after hesitating and pondering upon the policy of withdrawing from the 
Departtncnt of State, he archly concluded that, "opposed hy the deep-rooted popularity of Gen- 
eral Jackson, all hopes of success were vain ;" he, therefore, resolved to keep his position, as 
the most propitious; thence to avail himself both of General Jackson's affections and his resent- 
ments. He immediately set about to court the for ntcr, by unremitting attentions and assiduities 
towards the lady of General Jackson's most favored Secertary, the Secretary of War: and to 
arou-se the latter passion, " Mr. Van Buren sprung a mine upon Mr. Calhoun, which had been 
Jong ilug beneath the fi*et of hi;n who was the only riiHil in the Jackson party who could give 
Mr. Xan Buren uneasiness." 

" It was already felt (says tlie Political Mirror, page 125) that the influence of (hund)ug) re- 
' fociii hal 2[iven to the President a potetitiiil, if wil x conclusice, voice in designating his succes- 

* sor. His favor was as mucii to be sought, as his enmity was to ha depra::atcd. It was, therc- 
' fore, a desirable stroke of policy for a Presidential aspirant to gain the one, and to turn the other 

* upon hir, rival. Mr. Van Buren succeeded in elTecting this by a coup de maitre which has 
' rarelv been surpassed. In il, he exhibited the consummation of art which conceals art; for 
' whilst he :icconiplished an effective work, scarce the maik of a tool is visible. The work as- 

* suines, what il is afTirnr^d to he, the happy ministratiim of Providence. We will endeavor to 
' narrate the pavticulais of this event, (says tlie Mirr ir,) preserving chronological order. 

" Mr. James A. Hamilton [afterwards Secretary of State, {^ ad interim,') and then United 

* Stales attorney for the southern district of New York] was delegated in 1827 to represent 

* the New York Tammany Society, at New Orleans, in the celebration of the 8th of January, 



40 

* 1828, at that place. General Jackson had been invited by the Legislature of Louisiana to at- 
« tend the celebration. Mr. Hamilton joined the General at Nashville, whence he proceeded 
« with him and his suite. During the voyage, there was much conversation among the Gen- 
' eral's friends, in relation to various charges against the General, which the Presidential can- 
« vass had originated or revived; and, particularly, as to the unfriendly course Mr. Crawford 
« was supposed to have taken towards him in relation to the Seminole war. [The reader 
« will observe that Mr. Crawford's views of the General's conduct in that war were known, or 

* 8up|)0sed to be known. The application tobeniade to him, therefore, could not be for information 

* of his views and conduct, but of the views and conduct of others. If of others, of whom, save 

* Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Adams, or Mr. Wirt] Mr. Adams's were fully known — Mr. Wirt's were now 

* unimportant. Hut those of Mr. Calhoun were interesting to the General, and to Mr. Hamilton 

* as the adjective of Mr. Van Buren. These circumstances raised the violent presumption that 
« it was a knowledge of Mr. Calhoun's conduct that was to be sought. ] It being understood 

* that Mr. Hamilton, on his return, passing through Georgia, would avail himself of the oppor- 

* tunity to visit Mr. Crawford, Major Lewis desired him, or Mr. Hamilton offered, to ascertain, 

* truly, what occurred in Mr. Monroe's cabinet deliberations, in relation to a proposition snppoa- 

* ed to have been made to arrest General Jackson for his conduct in that war, and to inform him 

* of the result, in order, as Mr. Hamilton understood, that Major Lewis might be prepared to 
« defend the General against attack upon this point. 

«* On his arrival at Sparta, Georgia, Mr. Hamilton, as he declares, ascertaining that Mr. 

* Crawford dwelt si.Kly miles on the left of his route, and might probably be absent from home, 

* resolved to push on to Savannah ; thereby to take a detour of l.'iO miles to the right, avoid mg 

* one of 60 to the left, by a road, at that season of the year, much worse than that which he de- 
•clined. At Savannah, Mr. Hamilton, under date of 25th January, wrote to Mr. Forsyth, then 

* Governor of Georgia, whom he had seen at Milled geville, on his luay to Sparta, requesting him 
' to procure from Mr. Crawford the desired information. Mr. Forsyth replied, February 8th, 
'1828, thus: 

" I had a long conversation with Mr. Crawford, and afterwards read him your letter. By his authority, I slate, in 
reply to your inquiry, that, at a meeting of Mr. Monroe's cabinet to discuss the course to be pursued towards Spain, in 
consequence of General Jackson's proceedines in Florida, during the Seminole war, Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of 
the War Department, submitted to, and urged :ipon, the President, the (propriety and necessity of arresting and try- 
ing General Jackson. Mr. Monroe was very much annoyed by it ; expressed a belief that such a step would not 
meet the public approbation ; iliat General Jackson had performed loo much public service to be treated as a younger 
or subaltern officer miiiht without shocking public opinion. Mr. Adams spoke with great violence against the pro- 
posed arrest, and justified the General throughout, vehemently urging the President to make the cause of the Gen- 
eral that of the administration." 

» • * [The Mirror, after stating many other facts, part of them respecting a correspondence 
between Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Calhoun in coBnexion with this subject, goes on to say, p. 128:] 
"Mr. Hamilton was, at this time, 1st March, 1828, in possession of the following facts, most 
' important in their nature to a skilful politician. [Mr. Hamilton was then, as now, the polit- 

* ical, personal, and interested friend of Mr. Van Buren, aiid Mr. Van Buren had every need 
' which a skilful poUtician could have for .-uch facts, to be ii.scd at an opportune occasion.] Mr. 

* Hamilton knew, and we cannot for :i mument doubt that Mr. Van -Buren also then knew, that 
' Mr. Crawford avowed that Mr. Calhoun had suggested the arrest, a court of inquiri/, or pro- 

* cceding of some sort, against General Jackson for his conduct in the Seminole war; and that 
< Mr. Calhoun had denied that any measures against the General had beefi proposed l>y any one 

* in the Cabinet." * * " We have one fact yet to mention, which we think may have much 
♦bearing on the case. Messrs. Van Buren ami Cambieleng, in their Southern progress in the 
'spring of 1827, had spent several days with Mr. Crawford, who.se principal friend Mr. Van 

* Buren had been in the election of 1824; and, as Mr. Crawford was in the habit of speaking of 
♦these cabinet aifairs, and of .Mr. (y'alhoun, whom he most cordially hated and vengefully pur- 

* sued, it becomes highly probable, almost certain, that he communicated to his dearest friends 

* [Van Buren and Cambreleng] the inconsistency, as he supposed, of his enemy, in supporting 
■for President the man whom he had proposed to arrest, and probably to degrade." * * * 
•'Supposing Mr. Van Buren to have been then possessed of the facts, coinciding so well with 

his interests, we might, liad he not denied it, presume him to have been the pkomptek of Mr. 
■Hamilton's otherwise very extraordinary course." 

"But, if these facts might prostr.ate Mr. Calhoun, why not use them at the time? The re- 
ply is obvious. They could not be used with effect. General Jackson was not President — 
' he might not be ; and to make him so, Mr. Calhoun's interest might be indispensable. Neither 
■'the chief nor Mr. Van Buren would have ventured to quarrel with the Vice President at this 
■time." * * • " Until the winter of 1829-';^0, [these important facts, known to the friends 
'of General Jackson, remained unnoticed,] when the same Mr. Hamilton who had so success- 
' fully and accidentally put the Vice President at issue with Mr. Crawford, called on Mr. For- 
' syth, then a member of the Senate, and requested him to give to the President the information 

* he had given to him, (Mr. Hamilton.) * • * " Mr. Forsyth [from certain considerations 

* was induced] not to give the information, without Mr. Crawford's assent. Mr. Crawford was, 
'therefore, applied to in form, and his answer, dated 30th April, 1830, was obtained, confirm- 



41 

* ing and enlarging the details given by Mr. Forsyth in his letter to Mr. Hamilton of the 8th of 

* February, 1828. Thb copt of Mr. Cuawfoud's lf.ttf.b, duly cEUTiFiEn, was furnished 

* TO Genehal Jackson on the 12th Mat, 1830." 

The sagacious author of the Political Mirror says : " Supposing Mr. Van Buren to have been 
in poBsessiiin of these facts, we might presume him to havt- been the prompter of Mr. Hamilton's 
otherwise extraordinary course." " But," says the Mirror, p. 132, " It is the privilege of tlie 
accused, in all cases, nay, custom makes it almost a duty, to plead ' not guilty' hefore a popu- 
lar or judicial tilU{ina\; but the question still remains, whether the evidence is sujficie7if to con- 
vict .^" The puhlic have some recollection of the success, in regard to the views of Mr. Van 
Buren, with which this quarrel was waged between General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun. All 
the details" of this political manosuvre constitute one of the most singular passages in the history 
of court intrigue. A perusal of the whole statement, from which the above extracts are made, is 
richly worth the purchase of this precious volume. Shortly after that dexterous achievement, 
Mr. Van Buren withdrew from the State Department, further to strengthen the advantages he 
had gained in his triumph over Mr. Calhoun, in regard to his future prospects for the succession 
to the Presidency. On this subject the Mirror, page 137, says: 

" General Jackson's Cabinet was composed of one Van Buren man, [the little magician him- 
'self,] four Jackson men, and one Calhoun man. Now, had all these men been earnestly dis- 

* posed to promote the public service, instead of their private ends, there was nothing in their 
'predilections which would have interfered with their public duty ; and all who were competent 
' might have continued in office. But their official stations gave patronage and influence, which 
'might be serviceable to the lkadf.iis to whom they were respectively devoted; and Mr. Van 

* Buren, who, from long experience, w ell knew the value of these, resnlvcd to ivrest them from 

* hands which would employ them adversely to himself,- and to such a purpose [adversely to 
' himself] it was supposed Messrs. Ingham, Branch, and Berrien were devoted. He had just 
'succeeded in overthrowing a powerful rival, and the dispersion of these enemies seemed, as it 
'truly was, a trivial matter. On the 11th April, 1831, Mr. Van Buren took the new and suc- 

* cessful course of sacrificing his enemies, by an apparent offering up of himself; addressing a 

* letter to the President, he declared ' he felt it his duty to retire from the office to which the 
' President's confidence and partiality had called him.' " [Mr. Eaton had tendered his resigna- 
tion on the 7th April.] 

It appears that these gentlemen, in their letters of resignation, assigned such reasons for so 
doing as were supposed would be satisfactory to the public, and cov'er hidden motives and precon- 
certed arrangements. Gen. Jackson, also, to put the final gloss over the whole affair, assigned 
his reasons tor reorganizing his cabinet. The Mirror says "there is a total want of keeping be- 
tween the reasons assisned [by Gen. Jackson] and those given by the Secretary of State and the 
Secretary of Wur." The same author further adds, page 110: 

" That the true motive for breaking up the cabinet were not those assigned by the President; 
' that it was an act premeditated ; and that the resignations of Messrs. Van Buren and Eatnn 

* were the consequences and not the cause of the determination, we have further evidence in the 
' confessions of the President and the wily Secretary, [viz:] 

" The President having invited to a private audience one of the secretaries, (!VJr. Branch, 
' whom he was about to dismiss,) for the purpose of making known to him the new arrangements 
' on which he had determinied, said, with an air of diplomatic caution and studied precision, 'Sir, 

* I submit to you two letters which I have received from the Secretary of State and the Secretary 

* of War, resigning their respective offices, and ask for them your serious consideration.' 'Sir,' 
' replied the astonished Secretary, ' I am a plain man, and your friend. Our intercourse has been 
' of long duration, and you know that diplomacy is no part of my character or of yours. Be so 
' good, therefore, as to tell me frankly what you intend, and what you desire of me.' 'Then, 

* sir, I will inform you that I mean to reorganize my cabinet.' ' Very well, sir; I hope you will 
' profit by the change. I have not been your friend for the sake of office. I wish only to be in- 

* formed whether my conduct, while in your cabinet, was satisfactory to you.' 'Sir,' said the 
' President, ' I have no fault to find with you.' ' With this assurance,' said the Secretary, ' I 
' am contented ; but allow me to inquire who is to be your Secretary of State 1' ' Mr. J^iving- 
< ston,' was the reply. 'Who is to take the Treasury Department 1' 'Mr. McLane, now 
' minister in England.' 'Who will occupy the Navy Department 1' 'Mr. Woodbury.' 'And 
' pray, sir, who is to replace ,Mr. McLane in England V ' Mn. V^an Buken.' " 

"Soon after the dissolution of the cabinet, whilst Mr. Van Buren was waiting at New York 

* the arrival of Mr. McLane from England, he re|)lied to the inquiry of a partisan friend — that 

* he had the offer of the mission to the Court of St. James, but had not yet decided as to the pro- 

* priety of accepting it. His friends, he said, difliered as to the policy of his leaving the country 
' at that time, there being some arranjicments to make in the republican party, for future opera- 
' lions — and observed that he was anxious to have an interview with Mr. McLane, hefore de- 

* parture, should he determine to go, Being interrogated as to the real cause of the dissolution 

* of the cabinet, he answered that Mr. E"*** had no agency in the matter; but that it was 

* caused more by the conduct of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Ingham, who desired the retirement of 



42 

' General Jackson from office at the expiration of the first four ifcars of hi.s term of service, and 

' who ha'] endeavored to consummate their designs by traducing the character of . To 

' the remark that he, Mr. Van Biiren, had managed well to pass unscathed through the fiery or- 
' deal, he laughingly replied, 'Yes, I had seen for some two or three months the approach of 
' trouble, and that a dissolution of the cabinet must ensue — the materials being too discordint to 

* continue together in harmony — and, to save myself, I thought it better to retire ia time, ksow- 

' INTi THAT IF [ I.ED THE WAY THE REST MUST FOLLOW.' " 

Accordingly Mr. Van Buren, in pursuance of the preconcerted arrangement, by which he re- 
duced the whole cabinet to a spoil, and appropriated a slice of §19,000 to himself, (having also 
artfully contrived to interweave into his letter of resignation a nomination of himself for the 
I'residency, as Gen. .lackson's successor, and to obtain the General's sanction of his course,) 
departed for Europe, in the summer of 1831, to represent the United States at the Court of St. 
.lames, where he had but lately disgraced his country bj- his diplomatic instructions to Mr. 
McLanc. To convict Mr. Van Buren of this charge (which was the principal ground of the re- 
jection of hh nomination by the Senate at the ensuing session, by the casting vote of Mr. Cal- 
houn, then Vice President) it will be sufficient to contrast his own sentiments, expressed in a 
speech in the Senate in 1827, on the very same subject, with the corresponding pasfage in his 
instructions to Mr. McLane in 1829. In his speech in the Senate, the 24th February, 1827, 
upon our negotiations to regain the British colonial trade, he said : 

"In a Government like ours, founded on freedom of thought and action, imposing no neces- 

* sary restraints, and calling into exercise the highest energies of the mind, occasional difl'erences 
' of opinion are not only to be expected but to be desired." " But this conflict of opinion should 
' he contined to subjects which concern oursi-lv(\s. In the collisions which may iirise between the 

* United States and a foreign Power, it is our duty to present an unbroken front. Domestic dif- 
' ferences, if they tend to give encouragement to unjust pretensions, should be extinguished or 
' deferred ; and ihe cause of our trovernment must be considered as the cause of our countrj'. 
' The humiliating spectacle of a foreign Government speculating for the advantage which it may 
' derive from our dissensions will, I trust, never again be the reproach of the American people! !" 

Now mark what came directly afterwards from this political impersonation of the grossest con- 
tradictions and inconsistencies, as soon as the fates had put it in his power to act upon this very 
subject of regaining the colonial trade. In his instructions to our minister, dated July 20, 1829, 
he said : 

"If the omis.sion of this Government to accept the terms proposed, when heretofore ofl'ered, he 
' urged as au objection to their adoption now, it will be your duty to make the British Govern- 
' ment sensible of the injustice and inexpediency of such a course. The opi)ortunilies which you 
' have derived from a participation in our public councils, as well as other sources of information, 
' will enable you to sjieak with conlidence — of the respective jiaits taken by those to whom the 
' adniinistratioii of the Government is now committed, in relation to the course heretofore pursued 
' upon the subject of the ' colonial trade.' Their views upon that point have been submitted to the 
' people of the United States; and the counsels by which your conduct is now directed are the re- 
' suits of the judgment expressed by the only earthly tribunal to which the late administration was 
' amenable for its acts !" " To set up the acts of the late administration as the cause of forfeiture of 
' privileges which would otherwise be extended to the people of the United States, would, under 
' existing circumstances, be unjust in itself, and could not fail to excite their deepest sensibility." 
' " The tone of feeling which a course so unwise and untenalde is calculated to produce, would 
« doubtless be greallv aggravated by the consciousness that Great Britain has, by orders in council, 
' opened her colonial ports to Russia and France, notwithstanding a similar omission on their part 
' to accept the terms oH'ered by the act of July, 1825." 

In the name of all that is just and honorable let me ask, was not the last recited fact sufficient 
to satisfy Mr. Van Buren's mind that the same jjrivileges and participations in the colonial trade 
which were extended to Russia and France under similar circumstances, would also, upon 
the customary honorable course of negotiation, be restored to the United States, without dis- 
"■raciug the preceding administration, and humiliating the country at the footstool of our ancient 
enemy 1 Not only, then, is Mr. A'an Buren condemned, in advance, by his own judgment ex- 
pressed in 1827, for this anti-patriotic cou'luct, but manifestly, it was a superfluous excess of 
party spirit, as wanton as it was uncalled for. But, nevertheles.s, it was in perfect good keeping 
with the whole tenor of Mr. Van Buren's polifical life, from which it would have been a singu- 
lar departure had he not done precisely what he did. The emphatic words of the author of the 
Political Mirror (p. 166) declare that "The nomination of Mr. Van Buren was rejected in 
Senate, upon the ground, distinctly pnl, that he, 'the Secretary of Stale for the United States 
of America, had shown a manifest disposition to establish a distinction between his countrij and 
his pa-ty ; to place that party above Ihe coiinfri/ ; to make interest at a foreign court, for that 
party, rather than /«/• the cmintry ; to persuade the English ministry, and the English monarch, 
that Mei' had an interest in maintaining in ihe Jjnhed Siates the ascendency of the party to 
which he belonged.'' " "Other political sins of the ex-Secretary (says the Mirror) were reviewed 
at this period, and none were more severely reproved than the quarrel he had caused between 



43 

the President and Vice President, the dispersion of the first cabinet, and the introduction of the 
odious system of proscription (for the exercise of the elective franchise) info the Government of 
the United States — a system drawn from the worst period of the Roman KepuWic, making the 
offices, honors, and dignities uf tiie people, prizes to be won, buuty to be gained, at every presi- 
dential election — producing contests that would he intolerable, and which must result in inex- 
orable despotism." 

This rejection by the Senate, however imperiously called for to vindicate the honor of the na- 
tion against the stig(na cast on it by the oflicial nlliences of the nominee, nevertheless furnished 
a new pivot on which the wily politician and the abettors of his purpose of spoliations might 
turn their future electioneering operations. Very few persons cither in Congress or among the 
multitude of voters had any knowledge of Mr. Van Buren's previous hypocritical and treacher- 
ous political course, by which he had successively wormed himself into high station.s — but, re- 
garding him only as the adopted friend of General Jackson, they generally considered the action 
of the Senate more in the light of an insult oti'ercd to the venerated chief, than as a merited 
rebuke to a political adventurer ,- and therefore they were in a state of mind fully predisposed to 
second and adopt any electioneering arrangements to revenge the olTcnded President and his 
discredited minister, by advancing hiin to the highest official honors in the gift of his country, 
first by commissioning him to preside over the very body that had recalled him, and, secondly, by 
commissioning him to preside over the whole Union, whose honor he had degraded as the foot- 
ball of his party, to which he has since given her treasury as a spoil. It is obvious, then, that the 
whole popular enthusiasm that was immediately and industriously gotten up by the Executive in- 
fluence, for the first time thrown into the political arena, was virtually and substantially to vindi- 
cate, through a generous, dcceiveil, and abused peo|)le, at the ballot box, a guilty, condemned, and 
disgraced minister; and this, too, was to be effected by the artifices of Executive and other 
official electioneering, through an organized party press, emanating from the suggestions of the 
offender himself. But he succeeded! and the public now know pretty much of the details by 
which hi' did succeed ; and, in consequence of the abuses he has practised since his election, 
and the people's present better acquaintance with the dishonorable means by which he has 
enabled himself thus to abuse their confidence, they are now prepared to confirm the rejection of 
the Senate, by ejecting him from the Presidency. 

It being consonant with my pLin, from the lieginning of this review, to let Mr. Van Buren 
pronounce his own sentence of condemnation, as we have seen he has been compelled to do in 
the public prints in more cases than one of late, he shall have an opportunity to do so, once 
more, on the theme of the Third Period of his political career, which no doubt will be his last 
appearance in any political capacity. 



THIRD PERIOD. 



" T alUidf, sir, in ih.U collision, which seem.s in^eparnblf^froni the ttaliire of vnn, hpt'.vppn tlip iught.s of the 
few and the many, lo thiise iiever-ceoaing conflicts between iUp HilvocatPs of lue enlurgement ami conceit/ ralioii 
of powiin oi\ lli^- one liand, ami its limitation and distribuliomm the olhpr : conflicts which in England 
vrealed the distinction heltretn Wnic.s and Tojiies— the latter Blrivinc by all means within their reach to m- 
creane the infll'UNCE and dominion of the THRONE, at llie expense of thp cunnnon I'eojjle ; and the fokmer to 
counteract llie exertions of their adversaries, by abridging ih;a dominion and influence, for the advancement of 
'he rights and consemient amelioration of the condition of the PEOI'Mv"— ( In*! Buren's speech on f'oote'a 
resolution, session l827-'-2S.) 

Mr. VuJi Buren, while a Seniitor in 1828, reprobated t/ie Tori/ principle of the enlargement 
and concentration of p(ni:er, and advocated the ^Vhis; principle of the lintitation and distribu- 
tion of power; his practices while President of the United States convict him, und^r the criteria 
of hi.i own judgment, as an apostate \^hig, a Tory, and a traitor to his country and her 
constitution. 

Mr. Van Buren having exerted his great experience in political matters, while a Senator, a 
member of General Jackson's cabinet, and Vice President, in " uniting, harmonizint^, and 
directinsCi those with whom he acted," to promote executive encroachments on the other de- 
partments of the Government, and to concentrate all power in the President — as I have demon- 
strated in the foregoing sections — it remains now to say a few words on the uses and abuses he 
hasi made of those ♦' concentrated powers" in the brief space since his election to the Presidency. 

I have already anticipated most of these details, by recitals and references incident to the First 
and Second Periods of life just reviewed; and all the themes of this Third Period being made 
familiar to the public mind by executive messages, secretaries' reports, congressional proceedings, 
public discussions, and newspapaper notoriety, there is no occasion for me to dwell upon them 
here, though, in a practical sense, the most important period of the Magician's hfe. I have 



44 

taken a survey of the serpentine course by which Mr. Van Buren wormed himself successively, 
stealthily, anil upon trust, almost without inquiry, into high stations, till he actually reached the 
topmost pinnacle of honor — showing how artfully he established redoubts and safe-guards about 
his imaginary throne, even before he had attained the platform on which he purposed to erect 
it. Preparatory to a summary recapitulation of those fortresises of concentrated and usurped 
powers, I shall cite one more remarkable instance of the ivili/ man's fair professions, to show 
how Mr. Van Huren, while he was an humble suppliant before the People for small favors, 
condemned in advance his own subsequent acts, and, as a good Whig, in a speech, sneered with 
ineffable scorn upon the whole class of Tories who had ever practised the same acts be- 
fore him. 

In a speech in the Senate of the United States in the winter of 1827-'28, on Mr. Foote's 
motion to invest the Vice President with power to call to order for words spoken in debate, Mr. 
Van Buren gave a good description of " Whigs" and "Toiuks," showing the hostility of the 
former against that '^enlargement and concentration of power," which he represents the latter 
as ever seeking to achieve and grasp in their own hands ; taking occasion, nt the same time, to 
eulogize the whig principles of '■' limit at io7i and distribution of power." But how entirely he 
has reversed these professions by his practice, since he has officiated in the executive department, 
and particularly since he has been President of the United States, is at last in a fair way to be- 
come well known to every voter in the country. On the occasion above-mentioned, Mr. Van 
Buren said : 

" It is the source from whence ihe power of calling to order had been claimed for the Vice President, which had 
exciled his anxiety. In claiming that power by implication, ho said, principles had been advanced and earnestly 
siipporied, asainst which he Ml it lo be his duty, ai least, to protest." "In every point of view, said Mr. Vaa 
Buren, in wliich this subject had presented iiself to his mind, it had produced but one sentiment, and that was un- 
atJALiFiED OPPOSITION lo the pnEROGATiVE Claimed for the chair. Although this claim of power is now for the fii-st 
lime made, ihejjiinciple in which it originates is as old as the Government itself 1 look upon it, sir, as the legiti- 
mate offspring of a school of politics which has, in times past, agitated and greatly disturbed this country; of a 
school, ilie leading principle of which may be tr.iced lo that creat'source of political contentions which have jjer- 
vaded every country where the rights of otqw were in any degree respected. 1 allude, sir. to that collision, which 
seems inseparable, from the nature of man, between the right's of the few and the many, to those never-ceasing 
conflicis between the advocates of the enlargement and concentration of power on the one hand, and iis limitation 
and distribution on the other; conflicts which, in England, created the distinction between Whios and Tobies—- 
the latter striving by all means within their reach lo iricrease the influence and da;7n'n7on of the thuone, at ihe 
expense of the common people ; and the former to counteract the exertions of their adversaries, by abridging that 
dondjiion and influence, for the advancement of the rights and the consequent amelinralion of the condition of the 
people." Again, " No candid and well-informed man will for a moment protend, that if the powers now claimed 
for this Government had been avowed at the time, or even had not been expressly disclaimed, there would have 
been the slightest chance for the adoption of the constitution by the requisite number of the old thirteen States. 
But it was latified, (said Mr. Van Buren.) and from the moment of us adoption lo the present day, the spirit 
he had described, had been at work to obtain by construction what teas not included or intended to be included in 
the grant." " It was then thai ihe mo'iarcliicol and arislorratical chamclcT of the spirit he had described, was 
displayed in increasing efforts to wresi from the States the powers that justly belonged to them, to exercise such as 
haa never been conferred, and lo concentkate, as far as practicable, all authority in the hands of the 
Pkesident."— (S££ Holland, pagis 285, 291.) 

'I'hus did Mr. Van Buren once solemnly protest against the "implication of power," and de- 
clared liis " unqualified opposition to the pukhooativk it claims;" a prerogative which is in- 
comparably more dangerous in the President of the United States than in the Vice President, 
the mere presiding otiicer of the Senate. He also referred this " implication of power," and its 
consequent "prerogative," to a school of politicians who, he says, are ever seeking to enlarge 
and concentrate power in their own hands, whom he calls Tories, in contradistinction from 
Whigs. And, in his zeal for whig principles, he even embraces the occasion to calumniate many 
of our revolutionary iatheis who framed our system of Government and set it in motion, embra- 
cing General Washington, Mr. .lefferson, and Mr. Madison, among the rest, of course, as a part 
of this school of politicians or Tories, who "advocate the enlargement and concentration of 
power in the hands of the few, in derogation of the rights of the mani/," for they advocated and 
practised, " implied" or " incident," executive powers that enure to the " responsibility" of the 
office, for the good of the service. Nay, he even extended this calutnny by imputing, necessa- 
rily, to those and other eminent patriots, " efTorts to wrest from the Slates the powers justly be- 
longing to them — to exercise powers by the General Government which had never been con- 
ferred upon it — and to concentrate all authority in the hands of the President." 

Now, after this seemingly ardent manifestation of Whig principles, even unto the extreme of 
perpetrating an outrageous calumny against many of our best patriots of the Revolution, this 
simple question arises — What has Mr. Van Buren doxk, since he attained the Presidential chair, 
to repair, to curtail, and restore this enlargement and concentration of power in the General 
Government, and especially in the hands of the President 1 Has he taken a single step towards 
it ? No, not one ! 

1st. Has he repudiated the incidental or implied executive power of making removals from 
office P Not he ; far from it. He has not eveii confined himself to that wholesome limit pre- 
scribed by Mr. Madison, of power " incident to the executive office," to remove fou caush af- 
JTECTINO THE GOOD OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE. On the Contrary, he exercises this "implied 
power" of removal to the odious extent advocated by Tories, (not for cause, for such, generally, 
being of his own spoils party, he does not remove, but) for the indulgence of the most fiendish 



45 

of monarchical prerogatives, to pcmsh his political ekkmils , and that, too, with less regard 
lo the public good than if he were exercising the province of his personal rights or his private 
proptriy. 

2d. Has he restricte<l himself exclusively to the consideration of the good of the public servic« 
in making appointments ? He has not. Rather, he has made his appointments exclusively 
nnd avowedly M^on the spoils principle, of conferring rewards on zealous partisans for their part}' 
services, otherwise called a " payment of political debts" — palpably substituting his party for his 
country — confirming, in a yet more aggravated form, this very charge of the Senate, on which 
they based his rejection as minister to England ; more aggravated, I say, because these very 
parly appointments, as part of the system of reducing the commonwealth to a spoil, are sent to 
the Senate for their confirmation, and which, as his party vassals, they do confirm. 

But this is not all. Regarding the consequences of this latitudinous exercise of the correla- 
tive powers of removals and appointments, which are even pretended to be incidental or implied 
to the Executive office, in the extent to which they are used, there has sprung up, simultane- 
ously with this assumption of power, a system oi peculations, frauds, and d'falcations, that has 
jeoparded all the available resources of the Treasury, as the rightful spoils of the official party, 
to the utmost bounds that they think proper to go ; for there appears to be no definite or recog- 
nised limit to these depredations, except in the diflerent degrees of hardihood of the individuals 
practising them. 

This system manifests itself, 1st. In the enormous charges made against the Government on 
account of all casual jobs, from the most trivial to the most important, in every department of the 
Government, when such opportunities are afforded to the favorites of the Executive. 2d. In 
extra aWiwances, unknown to law, for services alleged to have been performed over and above 
the remuneration of the regular talaries, or as being performed out of official hours — whereas, 
there are no such casualties to authorize an allowance of any sort in those cases, the fixed compen- 
sation of law entitling the Government to the entire service of its officers, without further charge, 
unless Congress chooses to make a donation upon any extraordinary emergency. Gd. This 
system of depredations manifests itself in the defalcations of iieckiveks and disbubsehs of 
public money, to any amount that such officers may abstract, at intervals or by the lump, out of 
the moneys in their hands; which Mr. Van Buren considers lo be "less objectionable in indi- 
viduals, than for corporations lo use the public money" placed on deposite with them by the 
authority of the Government! 

3d. Finally, has Mr. Van Buren confined himself to the constitutional injunction that the 
President "r.hall from time to time give to Congress information of the state of the Umon, 
*nd recommend to their consideration such mkasuhes as he shall judge necessatiy and expe- 
dient V He has not. In regard lo the sub-Treasury measure, particularly, he has also over- 
leaped the obvious limitation of this clause, and has taken the initiative, if not the entire, power 
of legislation into his own hands. In the first instance, he recommended the "consideration" 
of this measure, connected with a statement of the financial embarrassments of the whole coun- 
try, and of the banking institutions of the States, in his message to the called Congress in 1837 ; 
but that body did not think proper to adopt the measure. Having thus pertormed his constitu- 
tional duty, here the matter would have ended, had he a sincere regard for the " limitations of 
power." But, true to the Tory principles of "extending and concentrating power," which he 
has substituted for the whi^ principles that he once eulogized of "limiting and distributing 
power," lie has, at every subsequent Congress, insisted upon the adoption of the same measure, 
which he had, in fact, no right to advert to as such, unconnected with further information of 
the stale of the Union in that regard, which alone could justify his bringing it forward as a new 
measure, based upon the further and severally communicated [new] information, from time to 
time, of the state of the Union. But more: without the new facts and information, the ab- 
sence of which stamps the several renewed presentations of the same measure as an Executive 
dictation to Congress, he has taken steps, through his party managers in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, to insure a majority subservient to his amliiticn, by disfranchising a sovereign State 
in depriving her of her full representation, by excluding five of her six members, legally return- 
ed, before the House was organized and in a condition to pass judgment upon the returns of its 
members in any contested cases — thereby realizing a most daring encroachment upon the 
" rights of the Stales," which he once affected lo hold in such high veneration ! 

So far, then, from abandoning the specific enlargements of Executive power, or renouncing 
the encroachments on the legislative department, he has pressed them to the greatest extremity ; 
and even beyond these, he has on several occasions made vigorous efforts lo raise the Executive 
authority above thai of the Judiciary Department ; which, however, has been as yet successfully 
resisted, and that, loo, the more to their credit, by a bench constituted of his predecessor's appoint- 
ments in the proportion of seven in nine. 

J^\l the rest of Mr. Van Buren's Executive acts, which can in any degree be made subservient 
to party interest, which he holds above the interest of his country, are of a piece with this sum- 
mary, showing that he is, to all intents and puproses, an apostate Whig, a rank Tory, a traitor to 



46 

his country and her constitution, for the sake of the hope to perpetuate his power, by basely 

holding up the commonwealth us a spoil to his deluded party ' 

Q;j"It must be obvious to the intelligent reader, that these few pages can only be offered, as 
a systematic outline, or frame-work, to be filled up by future details. 

But without these, the reader is now sufficiently initiated into the solecism, which equally sus- 
tains the truth thni Mr. Van Buren did every thing, and advocated every opinion — and the con- 
trary of every thing and every opinion, that have been charged against him : Hence, his parti- 
sans dare deny the truth of those charges, when the fart is, that both allegations of his contra- 
dictory actions and opinions are true. He has been for and against every thing and every body, 
F.TKnr OPINION and eveut party, as it happened to suit the vauting phases of his ER- 
RATIC POLITICAL LIFE. But still it may be said, he has been constant in these, because 
they have subserved his pnE-EMixEST coxstaxct ix the PURSUIT OF THE SPOILS OF 
OFFICE AND THE CONCENTRATION OF POWER. 



CONTENTS. 



PRELIMINARY. 
"We contend for a well-rcpiilaipd Democracy." 

IJoItu Marshall's speech in the Virginia Convention on the adoption of the Constitution. 

The true Democracy — of Statesmen, Patriots, and lovers of the Constitution — contrasted with the 
false Democracy of restless, ambitious innovators, and enemies of the Constitution. 



FIRST PERIOD. 

" Even at that early age, too, [fourtekn, when he commenced the study op law,] Mr. Van Buren is rep- 
resented, by those who kntw him, Ui have had a spirit of oliservation, willi regard lo public events and \he personal 
dispesitons and characters of tliose around him, which gave an earnest of his iwmp proficio.cij in the science 
OP politics and of the himan heart " 

lirolla7ul's Life and Political Opinions of Martin Van Buren, page 10. 

I. Mr. Van Buren's bad faith, double dealing, and disingenuousness, exemplified in the case of 
his conduct to De Witt Clinton : — united with the Hudson and Hartford Convention Federal- 
ists in opposition to Mr. Madison and the late war against England : — Rufus King, James A. 
Hamilton, &c., his political coadjutors. 

II. Mr. Van iJuren an abolitionist in heart — advocated the extension of the right of suffrage, and 
citizenship, to free negroes in IS'ew York, whereby they are also eligible to office ; — he also ap- 
proves the admission of slaves to testify, in court, against white citizens 

III. Mr. Van Buren opposed the adoption of a bill of rights with the New York constitution — he 
opposed the extension of the elective franchise — and he opposed the amenability of the higher 
officers of State to the ordeal ot popular elections : the inconsistency of his sentiments on 
the veto power — his advocacy of long terms and re-election to the chief Executive — the incon- 
sistency of his doctrines and practice respecting the "spoils of office ;" a system of which he 
was the unenvied author. 



SECOND PERIOD. 

" His long study of ilie human heart, [speaking of Mr. V. B. when he entered the Senate,] his great experience 
in political mailers, and his pre-eminent e«id sense, had given him a power of interpreting ihe popular will, and 
uniting, harmonizing, and directing the feelings of ihsoe with whom he acted, which few men ever attain to." 

IHolland^s Life, ^c, page 203. 
. Mr. Van Buren, uniformly, for a series of years, has been an advocate for a tariff' or imposts 
for the protection of manufactures — His subsequent repudiation of his first love, as an over- 
ture to the South — His support and denunciation of internal improvement, still more diversi- 
fied and inconsistent — His claim of initiative legislation, alone, brings the money power very 
much within his grasp. 

II. Mr. Van Buren's inconsistency respecting the constitutionality of a Bank of the United States : 
His combined safety bank system in New Vork, forpolitical purposes: Failure of his attempt 
to seduce or intimidate the United Stales Bank to the embraces of Executive dictation — as a 
substitute for which, he introduces his New York system, by combining State banks, as de- 
positories of the Treasury, oiider Executive control: Explosion of the system occasions a re- 
sort tu a sub-Treasury bank, iti order to accomplish the original design of usurping, concen- 
trating, and monopolizing the money power. 

III. Mr. Van Buren tiie author and jnTfecter of the great spoils system — The direct spoils of 
office only a branch of that sy.^tem — A key to the machinery used to bring this whole system 
to perfection, and concentrate it in tlie hands of the President, consisting of the Press, the 
Post Office, the Armed Force, and the Appointing Power — Their several uses and abuses in 
the hands of a corrupt Executive, in monopolizing the whole money-power, and reducing 
" the Commonwealth to u spoil.' 

THIRD PERIOD. 

"I allude, sir, 10 the collision, which seems inseparable, from the nature of man, between the rights of the few and 
the many, 10 those never-ceasinj; ciintlicls beiwoen the advocates of ihe enlargement and concentraiion of fxiwer on 
the one hand, and iis limitation anddisiribulion on ihc other: conflicts which in England created the distinction be- 
tween Whigs and Tories- the latter striving by all means wiihin their reach to increase the influence and dominion 
of the Throne, at ihe expense of ihe common people; and the former to counteract the exertions of their adversaries, 
by abridging ihatdondnion and influence, fur the advanceiuenl of the rights and consequent amelidraiioncif the con- 
dition of the people."— (I an Buren's speech on Foole's resolution, session 16^7-"28.) 

Mr. Van Buren, while a Senator in 1828, reprobated the Tory principle of the enlargement and 
concentration of power, and advocated the Whig principle of the limitation and distribution of- 
power : his practices while President of the United States convict him, under the criteria of his 
own judgment, as an apostate Whig, a Tory, and a traitor to his country and her constitution. 



Printed at the Ip.telligencer Office. 



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